Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

The Senecas begin fighting against the Kinzua Dam as early as the mid 1920’s. However, they were up against a stacked deck. By the mid-40’s, the Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, and the New York State Council of Parks each prepared surveys that called for vast flooding of Seneca lands, in spite of Seneca protests. In the late 50’s Congress was sending pending legislation affecting Seneca treaty rights to public works appropriations committees and not to those whose charge was Indian affairs. The Army bulldozed sacred sites, disturbed burials, and refused every alternative concerning relocation of the Cornplanter cemetery.

Back in 1794, the United States made a treaty with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. In the Canandaigua Treaty, the United States “acknowledge all the land..., to be the property of the Seneca Nation; and the United States shall never claim the same, nor disturb the Seneca Nation... it shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States, who have the right to purchase.” In 1958, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that Congress had intended to break the Treaty of Canandaigua when it passed the Public Works Appropriation Act of 1958. In 1959, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear a Seneca

The building of the $125,000,000 Kinzua Dam flooded more than 9,000 acres of Seneca land, destroyed the Cold Spring Longhouse, forced the removal of 130 Seneca families, and forced the families to live in a suburban style housing arrangement, instead of the rural setting of their ancestors.

Re-Licensing of the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project

A Case Study

Despite the environmental injustices that have been done to the Haudenosaunee with the construction of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project, the Niagara Reservoir, and the Kinzua Dam, an opportunity has arisen to address the past wrongs and to ensure that the future operation of these facilities is done in a manner that is consistent with the Kaswentha or Two-Row Wampum Belt. All three facilities will be required to be issued new licenses by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Mohawks of Akwesasne have taken a pro-active approach to the re-licensing of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project that can serve as a model, not only for the other Haudenosaunee communities, but for other Indigenous Peoples as well.

As part of the process to re-license the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project by the year 2003, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

Issuance of a new FERC license also requires the issuance of a Water Quality Certificate by the New York State Department of Environmental

Conservation (NYSDEC) under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act.

In 1996, the New York Power Authority (the “Authority), FERC, and NYSDEC entered into an agreement to modify the traditional FERC re-licensing process to allow for greater and earlier public partici­pation. The Authority named this earlier public participation process the Cooperative Consultation Process (CCP). They invited representatives from resource agencies, local and regional governments, non-governmental organizations, and the general public to participate on the CCP team. The goal of the CCP is to complete a timely re-licensing process that ensures continued, uninterrupted low-cost energy generation for the benefit of government, industrial, and residential customers of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project and that provides equal consideration of develop­mental and non-developmental values such as environmental and other non-power values for the balanced stewardship of the area’s environmental resources.

The Authority also invited the Mohawks governments of Akwesasne (the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, and the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs) to participate on the CCP as well. We declined to join the

CCP but agreed to send observers to CCP Team meetings.

Why the CCP Didn’t Work for the Mohawks of Akwesasne

As has been mentioned earlier, the Kaswentha or Two-Row Wampum Belt recognized that two distinct societies, the Haudenosaunee. in our canoe, and the Dutch, in their ship, were to travel down the river of life together, side-by-side, but each in our own vessel. We believe that the principles of the Two-Row Wampum Belt apply to the re-licensing of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project. The Dutch have been replaced by the New York Power Authority and we represent the Haudenosaunee people.

The CCP was a process that worked for the people who were already in the ship, the various entities, organizations, and upriver communities who are affected by the Project. However, we are not in the ship, we are in the canoe. The CCP did not meet the unique needs of our people. It did not encourage our best or full participation and did not allow us to contribute our rich culturally-based approaches and perspec­tives as seen from the canoe. In essence, the CCP asked us to leave the canoe and jump into the ship.

We do not categorize ourselves as a “community” group in the same sense that the New York Power Authority views the non-Mohawk community groups. We are not “the general public” or “interested parties” in the same way that the Authority perceived those entities to be. Our issues were not the same as the participants in the CP and how we view things are quite different (not better or worse) than the CCP team.

We are the First Peoples in this land and our treaties with the United States and Canada provide us with inherent rights that separate I from the members of the CCP Team. The sovereignty of the Mohawk Nation and the two Mohawk Community governments is a well-established principle in United States, Canadian, and International Law. We have the ability to set our own water and air quality standards. We could co-author the Environmental Impact Statement. We have jurisdiction over our territories. We have Traditional Cultural Properties that must be expected.

No single group of people has been as adversely affected by the construction and operation of the Project as we have. There are outstanding health, environmental, social and cultural issues that we have that could overwhelm those in the ship or be diluted by the issues of the people in the ship.