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Joy A. Bilharz. The Allegany Senecas and Kinzua Dam: Forced Relocation through Two Generations Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. xiii + 194 PP. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. Cloth, $40.00.
Forced relocation - a topic often associated with Native American history - did not end with the Five Civilized Tribes"'"trails of tears," nor with the federal government's persistent efforts during the latter part of the nineteenth century to concentrate indigenous peoples onto reservations. In fact, over a century after passage of the infamous Indian Removal Act the federal government appropriated funds in 1957 to construct a dam on the Allegany River in Pennsylvania. Although a 1794 treaty had guaranteed the Senecas' possession of their land, the dam's reservoir flooded one-third of the tribe's Allegany Reservation and resulted in the forced relocation of approximately six hundred men, women, and children.
Tracing the Senecas' reaction to the relocation is the primary objective of Joy Bilharz' The Allegany Senecas and Kinzua Dam. Bilharz argues that the removal was especially hard on Seneca women, and that the stress and trauma that children experienced led many to become politically active in their adult years. Seneca elders also experienced a high level of emotional stress during the removal, and returned frequently to the "old places" to reminisce and reflect on life prior to...