In the Shadow of Kinzua

by Laurence M Hauptman

Published 22 January 2014
Drawing on extensive federal, state, and tribal archival research, Hauptman explores the political background of the Kinzua dam while also providing a detailed, at times very personal account of the devastating impact the dam has had on the Seneca Nation and the resilience the tribe has shown in the face of this crisis.

From World War II onward, the Iroquois, one of the largest groups of Native Americans in North America, have confronted a series of crises threatening their continued existence.

From the New York-Pennsylvania border, where the Army Corps of Engineers engulfed a vast tract of Seneca homeland with the Kinzua Dam, from the ambition of Robert Moses and the New York State Power Authority to develop the hydroelectric power of the Niagara Frontier (which eroded the land base of the Tuscaroras), from the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (which took land from the Mohawks and still affects their fishing industry), to the present-day battles over the Oneida land claims in New York State and the Onondaga efforts to repatriate their wampum--Laurence Hauptman documents the bitter struggles of proud people to maintain their independence and strength in the modern world.

Out of these battles came a renewed sense of Iroquois nationalism and nationwide Iroquois leadership in American Indian politics. Hauptman examines events leading to the emergence of the contemporary Iroquois, concluding with the takeover at Wounded Knee in the winter-spring of 1973 and the Supreme Court's Oneida decision in 1974. His research is based on historical documents, published materials, and interviews and fieldwork in every Iroquois community in the United States and several in Canada.


Contemporary scholarship and Indian oral tradition come together in this unique account of the history and culture of the Oneida Iroquois-particularly the Wisconsin Oneidas-who have not been the subject of the intense scholarly attention accorded other Iroquois groups. Contributors include Oneida educators, community leaders, historians, anthropologists, and linguists; essays vary from accounts of personal experience and oral history to presentations of academic research. The common denominator is the Oneida experience of cultural change and survival.

Part I focuses on the history and adaptations of the Oneidas in their New York homeland. Part II describes the motives and methods used by New York State officials in divesting the Oneidas of their New York home and explores the aftereffects of the Indians' removal to Wisconsin and the legal implications of allotment legislation on American Indians' tribal jurisdiction today.

Nineteenth-century attempts by whites to take the Oneidas' Wisconsin land base forced the Indians to develop strategies for survival, described in Part III. Capable leadership, the maintenance of tribal tradition, cultural revitalization, new educational initiatives, and continuing connections among the Oneida communities have fostered a tribal reemergence and have allowed the Oneidas to maintain themselves as a unique and thriving people.