The Waters

The Lewiston Reservoir

In 1950, the United States and Canada signed the International Niagara River Treaty to promote the hydroelectric potential of the river. Eleven years later, in 1961, when the Niagara project produced its first power, it was the largest hydro-power facility in the Western world at the time. It is located about 4 miles downstream from Niagara Falls and consists of two main facilities: the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump-Generating Power Plant. In between the two plants is a forebay capable of holding 164 billion gallons of water; behind the Lewiston plant, a 1,900-acre reservoir, the Lewiston Reservoir, holding additional supplies of water.

The Tuscarora Nation is the youngest member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, joining the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas in the early 1700’s. The Haudenosaunee opened their door to the Tuscaroras from North Carolina as they had been overcome in their conflict with the white settlers of the region. What followed was the long Tuscarora “Trail of Tears” northward through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and into Haudenosaunee territory in what is presently western New York State. The Oneida Nation provided them with some land and the Haudenosaunee accepted the Tuscaroras as the sixth member Nation.

Because land was held on sufferance from the Oneida, the Tuscaroras found themselves homeless again when their Oneida benefactors sold their land. They then moved westward and settled down on a square mile or 640 acres of land given to them by the Senecas. They later added more land to their territory through a grant from Robert Morris in 1791 and purchase by the Holland Company in 1804, eventually comprising a tract of 6,799 acres near Niagara Falls.

Like the other Haudenosaunee nations, the Tuscaroras were a People of the land. Agriculture and fishing were integral parts of the Tuscarora lifestyle. The fields and woods surrounding their homes were a source of medicines for their people. While the Tuscaroras would visit nearby Niagara Falls or find work there, they would always return home to their Nation lands.

The lifestyle and ability to live on their lands would change dramatically in the 1950’s for the Tuscaroras, beginning with the signing of the Niagara River Treaty. However, it would be six years later that the fate of the Tuscaroras would begin to be sealed. In 1956, the region’s largest hydropower station collapsed into the Niagara River gorge one-half mile below Niagara Falls. Robert Moses, who was instrumental in building the St. Lawrence -FDR Power Project, seized upon this disaster to push the development of the Niagara Project. On September 28, 1957,

Moses is quoted “We can do at Niagara what we have done on the St. Lawrence.”

Like the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project, the Niagara Project was envisioned as an opportunity to develop the area to its fullest, for the unique power potential of Niagara Falls and the chance to establish the Niagara area as a major recreational center. All that stood in the way of this grand dream was the Tuscarora Nation.

Once the New York Power Authority was granted a provisional license by the Federal Power Commission in 1958, the Power Authority immediately announced that they were seeking 1,383 acres at Tuscarora or approximately 20% of the land mass of the Nation. They justified their actions in a letter to the Nation stating that the sale of the land “by you will impose no hardship on your community” since only “15 houses are in the way” and because much of “your land is presently uncultivated and unused.”

The Tuscaroras fought valiantly for the next two years to protect their lands. However, in a court case that made it to the Supreme Court of the United States, the Tuscaroras lost in a 4-3 decision. One dissenting judge, Justice Hugo Black, in a dissenting opinion made the famous quote “Great nations, like great men, should keep their word.”

The construction of the Lewiston Reservoir as part of the Niagara Project cost the Tuscarora Nation 550 acres, 495 acres for the power project and fifty-five acres for an easement for transmission lines through their territory. This was far less than what the New York Power Authority had sought, but still a major infringement on the rights of the Tuscarora Nation.

The Kinzua Dam and Alleghany Reservoir

The Kinzua Dam and Alleghany Reservoir were envisioned since the early 1900’s as a flood-control project for the upper Alleghany River. The project was autho­rized by the Flood Control Act of 1936. Construction of the dam was completed 1965. The purposes of the project included for flood control, low flow augmentation for water quality, fish and wildlife enhancement, hydropower and recreation.

Kinzua is a concrete dam with an earth abutment on the right side. The overall length of the dam is 1,877 feet. The dam is located on the Alleghany River, about 8 miles above Warren, Pennsylvania. Alleghany Reservoir is located in War and McKean Counties, Pennsylvania and Cattaragus County, N.Y.

The Seneca Nation is the Keeper of Western Door for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. In 1813, the infamous Treaty of Buffalo Creek was negotiated between the Ogden Land Company and the Senecas. The Ogden Land Company used fraud, bribery, alcohol and forgery to negotiate this treaty with the Senecas. Despite revelations about the methods by which the treaty was negotiated, its terms were approved the United States Congress. It deprived Senecas of all their remaining land and provided for their removal to Indian Territory in the Southwest (now the state of Oklahoma). It would be almost thirty years later, in 1842, that the Cattaragus and Alleghany Reservations would be returned to the Senecas. It would be an additional fifteen years later, in 1857, before Tonawanda Senecas would be able to repurchase most of their Nation