A federal magistrate judge has found New York State has been illegally operating a portion of the Thruway on Seneca lands.
Judge Michael Roemer said in a report issued this week that the easement the state made with the Seneca Nation in the 1950s violated federal law, which requires the transfer of any tribal land to have approval of the federal government.
About three miles of the Thruway runs on Seneca Territory in Western New York…