Introduction by the Onondaga Nation and activist neighbors of an indigenous perspective on issues surrounding hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale

The introduction of an Indigenous perspective by Native spokespeople and their allies is a significant factor in an ongoing legal and discursive struggle over the future of unconventional gas drilling in New York. This paper analyzes the alliance between the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and an ally organization known as Neighbors of Onondaga Nation (NOON) as they cooperate to oppose slick water high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as hydrofracking, in the Marcellus Shale. We trace the history of cooperation between NOON and the Onondaga Nation and locate it in relation to other Native/non-Native alliances. We characterize the responsibility-based approach to law that is suffused throughout Haudenosaunee worldviews and legal systems and contrast it with the rights-based approach of New York State and US environmental and property law, in particular as this rights-based approach structures and constrains the process used to determine the future of hydrofracking in New York. We also consider these differences in the context of Onondaga self-determination and Native American treaty derived sovereignty. We conclude by suggesting that alliances between Native Nations and non-Native organizations might expand opportunities for including Indigenous perspectives on the relationship between society and nature in important decision-making processes. Copyright AESS 2014