Prior to European colonization the Iroquois exercised active dominion over most of what is now New York State. Of the 49,576 square miles of the State the Iroquois held title to about 4/5 of the total area (approximately 39,000 square miles).

Traditional Iroquois boundary lines were quite specific as to which lands belonged to a particular Nation. Mohawk territory extended from the Delaware River north to the St. Lawrence and included almost all of the Adirondack Mountains. Their boundaries to the east were Lake Champlain, Lake George and the Hudson River.

By adding up the area of the current counties within this region the Mohawk Nation can lay claim to 15,534 square miles (or 9,941,760 acres) as having been alienated from their possession through various means, including fraudulent "treaties".

Oneidas recognized the West Canada Creek, the Unadilla River and the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in St. Lawrence County as their eastern border with the Mohawks. They also knew their land went as far north as the St. Lawrence River and south to below the Susquehanna. Using the same formula of applying County areas to indigenous Oneida territory a figure of 5,819 square miles is arrived at (or 3,724,160 acres). To the west of the Oneidas were the Onondagas; their borders followed the Tioughnioga River, Otselic River and Chittenango Creek as it flowed into Oneida Lake. Within their National boundaries are the Counties of Jefferson, Oswego, Onondaga, Cortland, part of Tioga and about half of Broome. Their total is 2,670,720 acres or 4, 173 square miles.

Cayuga lands between Rochester and Syracuse included Cayuga, Seneca, Chemung, Schuyler, Wayne, Tompkins and part of Tioga Counties. Their region is 3,123 square miles or 1,998,720 acres.

In western New York the Seneca Nation enjoyed fertile lakeshore fields and a rolling terrain which was rich in wildlife. Their lands stretched from east of the Genesee River to the Niagara Peninsula and southwest to Lake Erie. An estimated 10,248 square miles (6,558,720 acres) was held by the Senecas until various land companies removed them to three small Reservations in the early nineteenth century.

All together the Iroquois Confederacy held as its own 24,894,080 acres of some of the most beautiful and resource wealthy lands in all of North America. Yet Traditional Iroquois were careful custodians of the Earth for nowhere in this broad expanse of territory was there a single polluted stream, hazardous waste site or open landfill.