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 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'.

The Legal Battle for Kinzua

In 1957 Congress appropriated funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct Kinzua Dam, thus beginning a legal battle between the Seneca Nation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. From 1957 to 1962 the Seneca Nation and allies to our Seneca people lobbied Congress to prevent Kinzua Dam from being constructed.

After it was announced that Kinzua Dam was to be built, President Cornelius hired Arthur E. Morgan as the Seneca Nation's chief engineer and adviser. Morgan collaborated with our Seneca people to create an alternative dam site and flood control plan, one that would not require the relocation of our Seneca communities on our Allegany Territory.

The Conewango Plan, devised by Morgan, would divert flood waters from Ohi:yo' through the Conewango basin and into Lake Erie. The Army Corps of Engineers dismissed the Conewango Plan.

In September of 1957 the Seneca Nation requested that an independent third party survey and study of the Kinzua Dam and Conewango Reservoir proposals be done to provide a second opinion. The report produced by the New York City firm Tipetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton firm supported the viewpoint of the Army Corps of Engineers that the Conewango Plan was not better than the Kinzua site plan.

On May 25, 1960 Congress passed an appropriations bill to construct the dam. Construction began later that year.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this tag:

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.
Walter Taylor, the national representative of the American Indian Program of the American Friends Service Committee, a Society of Friends organization, is speaking with George Heron (SNI President 1958-1960, 1962-1964) in front of two of the proposed resettlement area maps for displaced Seneca families (Jimerson Town and Steamburg) that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created. 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.
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.

This page references:

Kinzua and Conewango Proposals Map Kinzua and Conewango Proposals. Arthur Morgan's Conewango Plan would have involved building two dams, one on the Seneca Nation's Allegany Territory and one along Conewango Creek. The reservoir therefore, would have been by Conewango Creek and diverted water to Lake Erie. Original Caption: Western New York and Pennsylvania, showing the location (not drawn to scale) of the Conewango Reservoir and its two dams and of the Kinzua Dam. Map by Adele L. Johnson.
Cornelius Seneca with Representative John Rabu of New York State