Seneca Falls, N.Y. — The Cayuga Nation sued several New York state officials and agencies Monday, claiming a section of the state Thruway was constructed on its land without necessary federal approval.
In its lawsuit filed in federal court in Buffalo, the Cayuga Nation said the state never sought permission for the section of the Thruway when it was constructed in the 1950s.
The lawsuit argues that part of the highway crosses into land that the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua recognized as its territory. The treaty said the nation’s 64,015 acres, in what are now Seneca and Cayuga counties, “shall remain theirs” unless it is sold to the United States.