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Reclaiming Ohi:yo'- Restoring the Altered Landscape of the Beautiful River 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. 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'.

Reaching out to the American Public

On April 14th, 1958, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania received approval in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to take our land on our Allegany Territory to build Kinzua Dam. Soon after this ruling, the Seneca people, including the Seneca Nation, engaged in various outreach efforts to the American public to stop the construction.

In addition, to our voices, our elders had support from the American public in the form of news reporters, Hollywood stars, Congressman, engineers, the Society of Friends, and other local citizens who also saw the injustice in taking our land for the dam.

All of the photographs seen below can be viewed in full by clicking on the image.

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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. September 15, 1962 was declared "American Indian Day" by New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, most likely in response to the controversy surrounding the building of Kinzua Dam. Members of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Society of Friends, and Congress gathered at the Cornplanter Monument located on the Cornplanter Grant in Warren County, Pennsylvania to mourn and remember Chief Cornplanter and the land that makes up the Cornplanter Grant. The Cornplanter Monument and the Cornplanter Grant were both named in honor of Chief Cornplanter, one of the signers of the Canandaigua Treaty and a very esteemed member of the Senecas; if Kinzua Dam was completed the Allegany Reservoir would completely submerge the Cornplanter Grant. Members of the Seneca Nation stopped at the construction site of Kinzua Dam on their way to the Cornpanter Grant. Senecas in the photograph can be seen wearing components of Plains Indian regalia, which was worn throughout many of the photographs of the Kinzua Era as a way to bring attention to the issue and be seen as identifiably "indian" by the American public. 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.
Seneca Nation Presidents', beginning with Cornelius Seneca (1956-1958), began writing to public officials in Pennsylvania, New York, and even the President of the United States in an effort to stop the construction of Kinzua Dam. In a letter from U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy declares that he will not halt the construction of Kinzua Dam. President Kennedy's reasoning, like many who supported building the dam, argued that national U.S. interests superceded that of our Seneca people. President Kennedy's remarks and stance on the issue were not unusual for this time period.
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.
On August 12, 1961 a small group of Quakers, who named themselves the Treaty of 1794 Committee, and our Seneca people gathered in Kinzua, Pennsylvania for a protest vigil against the construction of the Kinzua Dam. 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 the building of Kinzua Dam. Since 1795 the Society of Friends has maintained an Indian Committee as part of their Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Many of their Quaker allies like Walter Taylor and Theodore "Ted" Hetzel were a part of said committee. Identified in the photograph is Harold Parker, standing center; third from the left facing front is Bessie Parker, Harold Parker's wife.
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.
One of the many reasons citizens of Pittsburgh wanted to build Kinzua Dam in Warren, PA despite ethical objections was because the other five reservoirs in the chain had already been built. Since the 1930s, a chain of reservoirs that would protect Pittsburgh and those downriver from flooding were constructed; the final installment to this chain would have been Kinzua Dam. This news article provides insight into our reasoning for not building the dam in Warren. Our Allegany Territory is located in a valley surrounded by steep hillsides, which therefore only has a small amount of land for living and subsistence. A portion of our Allegany Territory is also occupied by congressional villages (Salamanca, Carrollton, Killbuck, Great Valley, and Vandalia), established by acts of Congress, that are leased from the Nation and largely populated by non-Senecas. The land inundated by the reservoir was a significant portion of our best land for living and subsistence.
At the 14th Annual Convention of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), an indigenous professional organization in the United States, the NCAI passes a resolution to protest the building of the Kinzua Dam and uphold Seneca Nation sovereignty; Clarence Wesley, President of the NCAI, wrote a letter to The Washington Post in response to their "Second Look at Kinzua" editorial published a few days before. Wesley's letter argues that the real objective of behind building the dam is pollution control for the industrialized waterfront downstream. Many of our own people also believed then and now that this was the case.
In a letter to SNI President George Heron, Arthur Lasarus, Jr., the lawyer to the Nation, comments on Pennsylvania Senator Joseph Clark's response to "Second Look at Kinzua", an editorial published earlier that week in The Washington Post. This internal memo shows the significance to our ancestors that the press publicity had in addition to providing insight into internal communication during the Kinzua Era. "Second Look at Kinzua" and many others like it sparked a public debate in the Western New York State region over Indian status. Articles like this appeared in other newspapers at the regional and national level from both sides of the debate.
In Senator Joseph S. Clark reply to the "Second Look at Kinzua" editorial, he voices an opinion that many public policy officials within the U.S. government held at this time. Senator Clark's outlines the viewpoint that our indigenous status is an antiquated government policy that should be dissolved. When Senator Clark states that the reimbursement will be "to the same extent as other American citizens", he is not recognizing the sovereignty of the Seneca Nation, sovereignty afforded and recognized by our treaty with the U.S. and our special political and economic federal recognition indigenous status.
Throughout the Kinzua Era, and evidenced in many of our other exhibit materials, responses to previously published statements were a popular form of communicating where one stood on the issue.This letter that would have been given out at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends shows our relationship with the Quakers. The referenced Kinzua Planning Newsletter was created in conjunction with the Society of Friends and the Seneca Nation to keep our Seneca communities but also the American public updated on what was happening.
The Indian Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends (a Society of Friends organization) worked with the Seneca Nation to prevent the construction of the dam. In December of 1962 when it became clear the U.S. court system would not help us, we began focusing our efforts on relocating our communities that would be inundated as part of the Allegany Reservoir. We quickly needed to prepare new houses, churches, schools- entire communities for our people who were being relocated.