Onondaga Nation

Onondaga Nation is part of a series by Sarah McCoubrey that depicts billboards near her home in upstate New York. This sign was painted by a faction of Onondaga Native Americans after a controversy erupted in 1997. Although tribal smoke shop owners had been able to sell cigarettes without federal taxes, Governor Pataki announced plans to collect taxes on their transactions to non-natives. The Onondaga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, and Seneca tribes were infuriated, believing such efforts violated their sovereignty as Native American nations. Those against the tax plan gathered on Route 81, where they burned tires and painted this billboard in retaliation. Matters became so violent that the state police were called to intervene, and the government eventually abandoned the bill.