George Heron, Basil Williams, Robert "Bob" Haines, Theodore"Ted" Hetzel, 1961
1 2018-07-20T15:07:29-07:00 Dana Reijerkerk 3c44fb85ab096c2290175e81dd4f16f0002a41e0 30861 5 Between May 1961 and January of 1962 the Seneca Nation of Indians and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers negotiated the individual landowner boundary lines of the "take" areas on the Army Corps proposed resettlement maps. From left to right: George Heron (SNI President 1958-1960, 1962-1964), SNI President Basil Williams (1960-1962), Bob Haines, the Chairman of the Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and Theodore "Ted" Hetzel, a member of the Indian Committees of the American Friends Service Committee and a Board Member of the Indian Rights Association. The Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the Indian Committees of the American Friends Service Committee are both Quaker organizations. plain 2018-08-20T17:24:23-07:00 Seneca-Iroquois National Museum 2018-07-18 stillimage 85.1003.0227 independent sovereign nations, native peoples reservations, flood dams, gravity dams, rolled-fill dams Seneca-Iroquois National Museum eng The Society of Friends has historically been involved with the Seneca people and the Seneca Nation of Indians since the Pickering Treaty (Treaty of Canandaigua) was signed in 1794, the same treaty which would be broken by building Kinzua Dam. Starting as early as the 1950s the Quakers and the Seneca Nation of Indians worked together to bring awareness of the destruction to the Seneca way of life that the Kinzua Dam would cause as a result of being built. Between April and September of 1961, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed and mapped out the flowage and clearing easements for the Allegeny Reservoir, part of which would extend into Seneca Nation of Indians land on the Allegany Territory. Between May 1961 and January of 1962 the Seneca Nation of Indians and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers negotiated the individual landowner boundary lines of the "take" areas: Seneca Nation land below the 1365 elevation line that the U.S. Army Corps was taking to be a part of the Reservoir. Seneca Nation officials were given copies of the Army Corps proposed resettlement area maps for displaced Seneca families and held personal meetings with families who lived in the "take" areas in addition to discussing the maps' boundaries among Council. From left to right: George Heron (SNI President 1958-1960, 1962-1964), SNI President Basil Williams (1960-1962), Bob Haines, the Chairman of the Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and Theodore "Ted" Hetzel, a member of the Indian Committees of the American Friends Service Committee and a Board Member of the Indian Rights Association. The Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the Indian Committees of the American Friends Service Committee are both Quaker organizations. image/jpeg photoprint, electronic reformatted digital recordCreation Date encoding = "w3cdtf"; dcTerm:date subject authority = "tgn"; dcTerm:coverage languageOfCataloging authority = "iso639-2b"; dcTerm:language subject authority = "aat"; dcTerm:subject Record has been transformed into MODS from the original accession record. Metadata originally created in a locally modified version of qualified Dublin Core. dateCreated encoding= "w3cdtf"; dcTerm:temporal Allegany Reservation, Allegany (county) Ted Hetzel This record was created by Dana Reijerkerk. 1 photograph; Black and White, Glossy 5" x 7" 1961-02 Dana Reijerkerk 3c44fb85ab096c2290175e81dd4f16f0002a41e0This page is referenced by:
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in collaboration with the U.S. federal government built Kinzua Dam between 1960 and 1965.
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Constructing Kinzua Dam involved much more than the dam itself. The take area for the Allegheny Reservoir was land that fell below the 1365 elevation line.
Our Seneca people living on the Seneca Nation's Allegany Territory were not the only Seneca people directly affected by building the dam. The Cornplanter Grant located in Pennsylvania was also inundated, leaving Chief Cornplanter's heirs without their communities, their homes, and their land.
In addition to directly affecting our Seneca people, the take area also included seven non-Native communities, such as the village of Corydon. Residents of those communities were also forced to relocate.
The Army Corps of Engineers was involved in the planning, building, and operating of Kinzua Dam. Today the Army Corps is still in charge of the dam's operations. For more information on the history of the plan to build Kinzua Dam see here. For more information on the Kinzua Dam, view the Kinzua Dam Project page.
Constructing Kinzua Dam
On April 14th, 1958 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began preparing our land for construction of Kinzua Dam after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could take our land to build the dam.
Actual construction of the dam began in October of 1960.
For more information on the events of the relocation of our Seneca communities from our Allegany Territory, visit the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum or the Additional Resources page.Army Corps of Engineers and Resettlement
Between April and September of 1961, the Army Corps surveyed and mapped our lands. This survey was to map the flowage and clearing easements of the Allegheny Reservoir. From this survey, the Army Corps drew up maps of our land that they were taking for the reservoir and of the proposed resettlement areas, Jimersontown and Steamburg.
In May of 1961 the Army Corps and the Seneca Nation began negotiating the individual land owner boundaries of those maps.The Army Corps of Engineers Stance on Kinzua Dam
The following is an official publication of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding their stance on Kinzua Dam and the Allegheny Reservoir. It was published in October of 1963, three years after construction of the dam had begun.
