meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Iroquois History and Legends

68 Dam Nation

Iroquois History and Legends

Andrew James Cotter

Canadian History, Iroquois, History, North American History, First Nations, Religion & Spirituality, American History, Education, Six Nations, Native America, Christianity, Native American, Indian History, Colonial History, Haudenosaunee

4.8697 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1960s over 10,000 acres of the Seneca Nation's land was to be forcibly acquired by the US government to make way for a dam to protect Pittsburgh from flooding. To the Seneca who lived in the area however they would not take this treaty violation lying down. They would do everything in their power to find a way to save their ancestral lands and their family's homes.


Sources


Remembering the Removal [Kinzua Dam & Forced Seneca Relocation]

Caleb G. Abrams


Broken Promises and Peaceful Waters: Allegheny Reservoir -WARREN County

Keystone Curiosity


Oldest Seneca citizen shares story of tribe’s struggle, survival

by Leslie Logan September 26, 2020


Johnny Cash "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow" Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian 1964


Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235382


US Court of appeals ruling 1957

https://web.archive.org/web/20120517012641/http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/262/262.F2d.27.14488.html


103 Cong.Rec., 85th Cong., 1st Sess., part 10, p. 13977


John F. Kennedy's letter to the Seneca Nation, Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235382


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Erichoy History and Legends. I'm Caleb.

0:17.8

And I'm Andrew.

0:18.9

And we are back. And what are we talking about today, Andrew?

0:21.9

Well, Caleb, the crazy thing is, so much of the content that we've produced over the years

0:29.2

has been stuff that, you know, we consider ancient history, distant past. When we first started,

0:35.2

we were, our origin story took place nearly 900 years ago,

0:39.3

and then we got into the Age of Discovery, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1800s. And now we're moving

0:46.4

into this period, which is still before our time. But the thing is the topic that we're going to

0:52.1

talk about today is there are many people that are still alive today that were living when these events took place.

0:58.3

And when we first started the podcast, we made a deliberate decision to try to avoid more modern subjects, not because we didn't think they were interesting, but because they can be very controversial and they can be very

1:11.7

emotional. And we didn't want to risk. I guess that when things are a few hundred years ago,

1:18.3

people give you a little bit of a break if you mess something up. But if you mess up somebody's

1:23.4

life story and they're still alive, it's a lot more stress on a podcast or a historian.

1:29.4

I think something else that makes, and this story is going to be very sad and emotional today,

1:35.2

but I think one thing that still surprised me when I first learned about it is

1:39.3

oftentimes I got this idea in the back of my mind is, yeah, the colonial powers and America and Canada broke their word a lot and they committed horrendous acts and there was a lot of subterfuge and treachery along the way.

1:55.2

But we've left that behind.

1:57.3

You know, that's something that doesn't happen anymore.

1:59.2

We're more enlightened.

2:00.1

We care more about civil and personal rights these days.

2:04.5

But what we're finding is this event took place just 60 years ago, and it makes you realize that tribal lands can still be in danger even today.

2:15.8

If somebody has a different idea of what is more valuable

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andrew James Cotter, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Andrew James Cotter and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.