New York court rejects Onondaga Nation's land claim

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals court in Manhattan has rejected claims by Onondaga Nation that it is entitled to land stretching through Syracuse and down the middle of New York state.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written order Friday.

It said a lower court judge did not abuse his authority when he tossed out the lawsuit in 2010 even before evidence could be developed to support the Nation's claims.

Federal Judge Lawrence Kahn in Albany had ruled that the Nation's claims to land stretching from Canada to the Pennsylvania border would disrupt areas developed by generations of landowners.

The Nation believed it could prove it had strongly and persistently protested development of its ancestral lands for the last 183 years.