Indian Village is the only place in the fair selling 1-liter bottles of water for $1.
Indian Village is run by the Six Nations Agricultural Society, which considers the land sovereign, said Norman Jimerson, the village’s superintendent.
"We do what we have to do here to survive," he said.
"It’s for our people."
Fair spokesman David Bullard said fair officials respect the independence of the society and Indian Village, which sits at the northwest corner of the fairgrounds.
The fair this year required vendors to buy 24-bottle cases of 20-ounce bottles of Aquafina water for $7.50 each.
The vendors, in turn, must sell the bottled water at a minimum of $2.
The state also added five water bottle refilling stations, in the International Pavilion, Exposition Center, Colosseum, and Center of Progress and Dairy Cattle buildings.
Fair officials are urging visitors to drink lots of water as a blast of late-summer heat descends today through Wednesday.
The turtle mound is symbolic to the creation story for Haudenosaunee nations, which believe the earth was formed on a turtle’s back.