Seneca Nation Awarded $1.59 Million Federal Grant for Buffalo Creek Community Center Project
Nation will acquire, rehabilitate vacant Skillen St. Church
ALLEGANY TERRITORY, SALAMANCA, N.Y. – The Seneca Nation is planning to establish a community and resource center for Senecas of all ages living in the city of Buffalo and surrounding area.
Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong, Sr. announced that the Nation has been awarded a $1,591,200 federal grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Indian Community Development Block Grant program to support the creation of the Buffalo Creek Community Center. The successful grant application was prepared by the Seneca Nation’s Community Planning and Development Department.
The Nation is in the process of acquiring a vacant former church, which also includes a small one-bedroom pastor’s house structure, at 265 Skillen Street in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood for the project (pictured above).
“As a sovereign government that provides for our citizens, it is critical that the reach of our support programming and services extends to all of our people,” President Armstrong said. “Opening the Buffalo Creek Community Center not only reinvigorates a vacant property in the city with substantial investment from the Seneca Nation, it further ensures that Senecas who live in and around Buffalo have safe, convenient, and timely access to important resources to improve their quality of life.”
According to the Seneca Nation’s Clerk’s office, there are 750 enrolled Seneca households within the city of Buffalo, and many others throughout the immediate surrounding area. Individuals often travel long distances to the Nation’s Cattaraugus or Allegany Territories for various services and cultural resources. While the Seneca Nation has operated a Buffalo office since 1988, programming has grown over the years to include social events, cultural workshops, Seneca Language classes, a Native library, food pantry, and more, leading the office to outgrow its current leased space on Amherst Street.
“The city offers important opportunities for residents, but being separated from the greater Seneca community leaves many of our people with a physical and emotional disconnect, and no true sense of belonging,” said Ramona Marion, Director of the Seneca Nation’s Buffalo Native Resource Center. “We want to create a safe space where all generations of Senecas can gather and access cultural, educational and social resources in a community environment where they can feel connected and where they can fully embrace their Seneca identity.”
Built in the late 1940s, the 17,379-square-foot former Nazareth Lutheran Church has been closed for several years. The building includes a large gathering space, small gymnasium, commercial kitchen and cafeteria space, and classroom space. Once complete, the Nation intends to provide such services and programming as Seneca Language classes, cultural workshops, coordination of social services for Seneca citizens, meals for Seneca Elders, afterschool tutoring, college preparation services, job search assistance, summer youth programming, and more.
The Nation hopes to have office workers operating from the renovated pastor’s house by the fall. Converting the vacant church space into the community center, including all associated environmental assessment and remediation, rehabilitation and construction, is scheduled to be completed over a period of approximately nine months from commencement.
“Buffalo is and always will be part of our ancestral home, and our people are forever connected to the city,” President Armstrong added. “This project will be a signal to our people, and to our neighbors in Buffalo, that the Seneca Nation, the Seneca people, and Seneca culture are still very much a strong part of the fabric of Buffalo.”
