This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Reclaiming Ohi:yo'- Restoring the Altered Landscape of the Beautiful River Main Menu Welcoming Front page for this Digital Exhibit. The Seneca Nation of Indians We call ourselves Onödowá'ga:' (oh-non-doh-wah!-gawh!), which means "People of the Great Hill". We are one of six other nations that collectively call ourselves Hodinöhsö:ní (hoh-dee-nonh-sonh-neeh!), meaning "People of the Longhouse". Ohi:yo' Ohi:yo', our Beautiful River, has always been our home and source of nourishment. The Kinzua Dam Project Our elders fought for our land and sovereignty in the 1950s and 1960s. They fought to stop the construction of Kinzua Dam. The Allegheny Reservoir The reservoir has altered the landscape, ecosystem, and our interactions with Ohi:yo. The Allegheny Reservoir: A Visual Depiction of Water Levels At times of water storage the water depth of the river channel is approximately 26 feet, with as little as 6 to 8 feet of water during the winter months. The Significance of Kinzua to our Seneca People The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in collaboration with the U.S. federal government built Kinzua Dam between 1960 and 1965. Kinzua Era Timelines This page provides two different temporal representations of the Kinzua Era (1956-1966). Kinzua Dam's Environmental Impacts The creation of Kinzua Dam has had lasting environmental impacts on our land and water. Learn more here. Ohi:yo' Restoration and Resiliency Projects Members of the Seneca Nation's Watershed Resources Working Group are involved in various restoration and resiliency projects for our Ohi:yo'. The Seneca Nation's Fish and Wildlife Department in particular engages in projects related to building artificial habitat, repopulating our river's Walleye population, and building trenches to help land locked fish. Seneca Nation Fish and Wildlife Department The Nation's Fish and Wildlife Department engages in restoration and resiliency projects related to Ohi:yo'. Fighting for the Water: Fracking Wastewater in Ohi:yo' In 2016 the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) began deliberating a 1,000-barrel/day of unconventional gas drilling wastewater (Frack Wastewater) disposal facility in Potter County proposed by Epiphany Allegheny LLC. In response to the news of these fracking plans, our Seneca people again fought for our people, our communities, and our Ohi:yo'. A Legacy of Resilience We will continue on. Access and Use Rights For our full statement on rights and use of our exhibit contents see this page. Additional Resources This page contains additional resources that can provide more in-depth information that is perhaps not included within our exhibit. About this Exhibit This page contains information about our intra-Nation departmental collaborations and exhibit acknowledgements. This exhibit was published by the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, 2018.

Footnote 14

30861

In 1966 construction began on the then recently completed Kinzua Dam so that it could generate hydroelectric power. The Seneca Pumped Storage Project, nicknamed "the Seneca Project", is a pumped storage hydropower generation facility on Ohi:yo'. Today 450 megawatts of electricity are produced annually.

The Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station was owned and operated by the First Energy Corporation until 2013 when New York City's LS Power bought the rights.

More information about the pumped-storage can be found on the Additional Resources page.

This page is referenced by:

The Kinzua Dam Project On April 14th, 1958 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could take our land to build Kinzua Dam, a proposed flood control project originating in the 1930s, in Warren, Pennsylvania.

For the next four years, the Seneca Nation and our Seneca people fought to prevent the dam from being built. Its construction would mean the taking and subsequent flooding of our Seneca communities in our Allegany Territory.
What Kind of Dam is it?
Kinzua Dam is a combination concrete gravity structure and rolled-earth embankment dam. Between October 15, 1960 and September 29, 1961, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the two rolled-earth embankments that sat on either side of the concrete gravity structure. The earth embankments alone were made up of over one-half million yards of earth.

The construction of Kinzua Dam in Warren, Pennsylvania was completed in December of 1965.

On June 3rd, 2017, a local news station, WGRZ-TV, reported on the history of the Kinzua Dam and the Seneca Nation. View that coverage here: https://youtu.be/ToGeLwIaP9w.

For more information about Kinzua Dam's construction, see the Additional Resources page.

This page is referenced by:

What Kind of Dam is it?