Description
The Allegany Senecas and Kinzua Dam: Forced Relocation through Two Generations is a study undertaken with the people of the Seneca Nation at Allegany about the impact of the Kinzua Dam. Planned flooding of Seneca lands occurred in the late 1960s with the completion of the dam and Seneca families were forced to move their homes and longhouse. The longitudinal study examines the psychological, social, economic, and cultural effects of the relocation on the Seneca families. The twenty-year study involved extensive interviews with the families and their children about their losses, coping mechanisms, and political action. The author traces the history of the Seneca Nation in New York and describes the controversial plan that proposed the flooding of one-third of Seneca land and the displacement of nearly 600 people. Despite the existence of the 1784 Treaty of Canandaigua promises, the U.S. government demolished homes and oversaw the construction of the dam. The author applies a theory of relocation to this example and finds some differences in the Seneca model. She documents the rise of Seneca political activism, the role of Seneca women, and the development of a tribal bureaucracy. The final chapter provides a cursory comparison of the Seneca relocation with the experience of Innu of Davis Inlet and the Ojibwe of Grassy Narrows.