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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'.

Second Look at Kinzua: The Morality of Building Kinzua Dam

There are two sides to every story. The take area for the Allegheny Reservoir was land that fell below the 1365 elevation line. Our Seneca people living on the Cornplanter Grant and the Seneca Nation's Allegany Territory and several non-Native communities, such as the village of Corydon were forced to relocate.

No one questions the desirability of a project intended to end the disastrous floods on the upper Allegheny River. But it is open to serious question whether the only way in which the Corps of Engineers can achieve this end is by dishonoring a treaty with the Seneca Indians signed in 1794 by George Washington-the oldest treaty, incidentally, to which the United States is a party and which is still in force.

- "Second Look at Kinzua", January 24, 1960

Impounding of the funds appropriated by the Congress after long and exhaustive Congressional review, and after resolution by our judicial process of the legal right of the Federal Government to acquire the property necessary to the construction of the reservoir, would not be proper.

-President John F. Kennedy, August 9, 1961

Our home no longer belongs to us. It is the sole property of the Army Corps of Engineers. We are merely living in it because we have no other place to go. There is no money for us to put into a new home. We have just eight months left. Eight months to say good-bye to home, valley and a heritage I've known for eighteen years. How much harder it must be for those having to say good-by to generations of living, growing and dying inherited by a plot of ground called home.

-Brooks Atkinson, February 25, 1964

Again according to reliable professional information, Kinzua Dam will not give Pittsburgh and other communities down the Allegany River protection from flood control. Our information is that Kinzua Dam is wanted in order to wash industrial plant waste down the river; competent engineers assert that what is needed is a good job of cleaning up the stream. Congressman Gavin has admitted that what the proponents of the Dam want is really more water in the river.

-Clarence Wesley, January 28, 1960

Five alternative proposals have been found to be engineeringly sound but more costly than the authorized project. The sixth proposal, the Committee commented, "does not provide a solution to the water resource development problems of the Allegheny River Basin that compares favorably with the authorized plan." In addition, it would raise new problems, such as flooding of the Conewango watershed, a valuable agricultural area, and the complication of international jurisdiction.

-Senator Joseph S. Clark, January 30, 1960

Completion of the 179-foot high dam, the largest in Pennsylvania, is schedules for 1965. The man-made lake will extend north to Salamanca, N.Y., and will inundate 9,000 acres or two-thirds of the usable land on the New York reservation of the Seneca nation of Indians. The project will displace more than 1,000 white persons and some 550 Indians.

-William G. Weart, August 13, 1961

Does a sovereign nation have the right of eminent domain in a situation in which it has made a treaty that it will not exercise that right? Of course it is legal for the sovereign Government of the United States to break every treaty it ever agreed to, but it would not be ethical, and it would not improve our international relations.

-Theodore B. Hetzel, November 3, 1959

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The President John F. Kennedy Letter (pg 1 of 2) 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.
"Critic at Large: The Senecas Being Forced From Their Lands are Bitter with Good Cause"
"Second Look at Kinzua" Editorial
Senator Joseph S. Clark's Editorial Response 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.
"Kinzua Dam Protested: Morality of Flooding Seneca Indians Land is Questioned"
NCAI President's Reply to "Second Look at Kinzua" 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.
Last-Ditch Protest on Dam Launched by 16 Quakers