“There was a great man [who] once said that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle. It is the pendulum. And when the pendulum swings too far in one direction it will go back.”
Early last Saturday morning I awoke before sunrise. Climbing out of my hanging tent, I took a peaceful walk through the woods to the stony shore of the Allegheny Reservoir. There is a clarity of thought that happens that early in the morning. Sun melted away the fog and my morning grogginess.
Unfortunately, large motor boats broke the still silence of the morning. Large and loud, they charged forward on the reservoir as I sat contemplating. My plan was to kayak early in the morning, but those boats were creating such large wakes that it would be unsafe to travel on the water.
Before starting my road trip back to Pittsburgh, I stopped to read this sign.
Whose heritage is this place? Whose is it to enjoy?
Recently I have been reading a lot about the Supreme Court Ruling upholding that half the land in Oklahoma is Creek Reservation. The most surprising thing is how simple this decision was for Justice Neil Gorsuch. He tends to stick to the very letter of the law. The law is not up for interpretation, he would argue. The law is the law.
But reading over the Federal Government’s treatment of native nations over centuries, the trend is to break treaties rather than stick to the letter of the law. In the Oklahoma case, it is surprising and relieving that the United States upholds a treaty.
I am by no means an expert. But I hope that by sharing the past failures of the United States, we can work towards a future that upholds the values we hold dear.
Birth of a Nation
“[T]he Seneca are said to have been released by the Creator from beneath a mountain and prospered as the People of the Great Hill. ... [T]he Seneca were the largest of the Iroquois member nations at the inception of the Confederacy 500 years ago, and they grew even larger and stronger from the mid-1600s through the early 1700s through conquests, adoptions and assimilations of smaller groups of Indians. Within the clans of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Seneca’s numbered half the fighting force. Whenever the Sacred Tree of Peace (the Iroquois constitution) was threatened by an obstinate, warring nation, the Seneca’s were the first to defend the Great Confederacy.”
The Seneca people and their culture were, are, and will continue to be as complex and diverse a nation as any found on Earth. They prospered, warred, and governed long before Europeans ever made contact with them. I highly recommend reading their words yourself at sni.org.
Treaties
“Over time, and through increasing pressure from an ever expanding and encroaching post-Revolutionary War United States, the Seneca signed a series of treaties with the federal and state governments, which were designed to ensure the Seneca exclusive ownership of territories - admittedly, significantly reduced tracts of land from their earlier vast holdings as the largest member nation of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Rather than being vanquished and subjugated by the United States, the Seneca negotiated treaties that would ostensibly enable them to conduct their lives without the imperious hand of a conquering American government - either state or federal. ”
In 1794 the Seneca Nation and the United States signed the Canandaigua Treaty of Peace.
“The United States having thus described and acknowledged what lands belong to the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, and engaged never to claim the same, nor disturb them, or any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing theron and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof. ”
Two years after the Canandaigua Treaty of Peace, a plot of land was given to John “Cornplanter” Abeel, a Seneca diplomat. This reservation was the ONLY native land in Pennsylvania. This wasn’t large by any means, but it was still signed into law that these lands should never be disturbed by the United States.
The Dam
In 1936 a major flood hit Pittsburgh, coming from the Allegheny River. The US Army Corps of Engineers started plans to build a dam to control the river. This would flood all of the land given to John “Cornplanter” Abeel, and go well into New York State. For almost 30 years the Seneca Nation fought back, citing the treaty of 1794.
The decision ultimately fell on President Kennedy’s desk, who approved the dam. 600 members of Seneca nation were forced to relocate.
Remember, this was in the ‘60’s. We have footage of the land before, and the construction of the dam. Take the time to listen to those who were displaced.
Now that you know more of the history of this place, scroll back up to the Notice. Do you read it differently than you did before?
Whose heritage is this place? Whose is it to enjoy?