The Allegany Senecas and Kinzua Dam
Forced Relocation through Two Generations

In the late 1950s, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced its intention to construct a dam along the Allegheny River in Warren, Pennsylvania. Nearly six hundred Senecas were forced to abandon their homes and relocate. This title examines the short- and long-term consequences of the relocation of the Senecas.

Today the Kinzua Dam is, according to Bilharz, a 'potent symbol' for the Senecas. For the younger generation, faced with a reservation land shortage, it represents powerlessness, providing them with ample reasons to blame their parents and to continue to mistrust the federal and state governments. For the older generation, the risen riverbanks have acquired an almost spiritual significance. In the evenings many continue to wander down to the reservoir banks 'to be near where the 'old places' used to be'. Joy A. Bilharz is an assistant professor of anthropology at SUNY College at Fredonia. She is currently serving as lead ethnographer and coprincipal investigator of a pan-Iroquoian survey and study commissioned by the National Park Service.