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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 7

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The Cornplanter Grant is referenced in many places of the exhibit as being a "reservation", but this is a misnomer. The Cornplanter Grant was a tract of land given to Chief Cornplanter by the state of Pennsylvania. Cornplanter's heirs then lived on that piece of land in Pennsylvania, but it was not a reservation at all. The Seneca Nation's five Territories are reservations because they were created from a treaty signed between our Seneca people and the U.S.

Contents of this annotation:

Cornplanter Grant Visit, Stop at Kinzua Dam Members of the Seneca Nation, Society of Friends, and Congress stopped at the construction site of Kinzua Dam on their way to the Cornplanter Grant on September 15, 1962. Identified in the photograph, Front to back, right to left: Harry Watt (center), Myra Watt, Fred Claflin, Gert Claflin, Darla Claflin, Butch Claflin, Walter Jimerson, Dorothy Jimerson, Gordon Jimerson, Ron Jimerson, Effie Johnson, and Boyd Johnson.
Johnny Cash, 1969
"Seneca Ceremony Mourns Land Taken by U.S. Despite Treaty" (Page 1 of 2) News article from The New York TImes reporting on the gathering of our Seneca people, members of the Society of Friends, and Congress at the Cornplanter Grant on September 15, 1962. In Johnny Cash's song, "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", his lines "The treaties are safe we'll keep our word but what is that gurgling/ It's the back water from Perfidy Lake it's rising all the time" reference events depicted in this news article.
Merrill Bowen Letter to JFK The Seneca people living on the Seneca Nation's Allegany Territory were not the only ones directly affected by building Kinzua. The Cornplanter Grant located in Pennsylvania was also inundated, leaving Chief Cornplanter's heirs without their communities, their homes, and their land. In a letter to President John F. Kennedy, Merrill Bowen, the Cornplanter Indian Landowners Corporation President, appealed for help relocating the Cornplanter Cemetery and Monument.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Meeting with the Cornplanter Grant Descendants
"Seneca Ceremony Mourns Land Taken by U.S. Despite Treaty " (Page 2 of 2)

This page is referenced by:

The Significance of Kinzua to our Seneca People
The construction and history of Kinzua Dam and the Allegheny Reservoir is seen by our Seneca people as a traumatic event that has deeply impacted our culture and way of life. In the words of our Seneca people, here is what makes Kinzua Dam significant to us.

An excerpt from a Seneca Nation community newsletter:
The 10,000 acres of the Nation's Territory that was flooded to make way for the impoundment were the most productive subsistence and agricultural lands of the Nation's Allegany Territory. The Seneca were forcibly relocated, and the government burned their homes, schools, and churches. Significant cultural, sacred and ceremonial sites were flooded, including a Longhouse and burial grounds.

The citizens of the Seneca Nation have suffered profound cultural, economic and environmental harms from the federal government's unilateral taking of their homes, lands, and river to construct and operate Kinzua Dam and the Pumped Storage Project. The federal government's actions comprise a shameful episode in American history, and have significantly harmed the Seneca Nation's treaty rights, including its reserved water rights, to the pecuniary benefit of downstream interests, including the current licensee of the project.

George Heron, our Seneca Nation President (1958-1960, 1962-1964), speaking at the Nov 22, 1963 American Anthropological Association, 62nd Annual Meeting:
Within the next year the Seneca Nation will undergo a drastic change in community life. There will be social and cultural impositions as a result...The taking of this land might as well have been done with a bayonet. It was compulsory. There was no determination on the part of the Senecas to 'choose to sell.' Major decisions about the reservoir water level, the basic new highway layout, etc. offer little chance for Seneca self-determination...The principals of consent could have been honored. The Seneca Nation could have been involved with the Federal Government in seeking together a solution to the flood control and water storage problem. Perhaps a better solution might have been worked out jointly than that by conceived by the Corps.

Melvin Patterson speaking at the American Indian Day gathering of Seneca people at the Cornplanter Grant, September 15, 1962:
From this day forward we of Indian blood will call the waters that flood this reservation practically out of existence the Lake of Perfidy.

While this exhibit does not focus on the relocation of our Seneca communities from our Allegany Territory, more information about these events can be found in other exhibits and resources in the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, located in its new home, the
Onöhsagwë:dé Cultural Center.

Contents of this annotation:

This page is referenced by:

The construction and history of Kinzua Dam and the Allegheny Reservoir is seen by our Seneca people as a traumatic event that has deeply impacted our culture and way of life. In the words of our Seneca people, here is what makes Kinzua Dam significant to us. ​

The construction and history of Kinzua Dam and the Allegheny Reservoir is seen by our Seneca people as a traumatic event that has deeply impacted our culture and way of life. In the words of our Seneca people, here is what makes Kinzua Dam significant to us.