Seneca Nation Archives/Onöhsagwë:de Cultural Center, Allegany Territory
Submitted by Becki Bowen
1964, March 2 – At a 6-hour hearing before the Senate’s Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., President George Heron told the subcommittee, “. . . there has been a complete disruption in a way of life which we Senecas had so long enjoyed. The Treaty of Canandaigua guaranteed that we would never be disturbed . . . I regret to say that there is bitterness against the U.S. Government among the Seneca people. When I tucked my Navy discharge into my pocket in October of 1945, I was happy and joyous to be returning to the land which other Senecas and I had fought to protect. Little did I realize that 12 years later we would be engaged in a legal battle to preserve our lands against the same Government we had so proudly served. Little did I dream that 19 years later I would be sitting here . . .”
1964, March 5 – A short article appearing in the Salamanca Press reported the following: “The State Dept. of Public Works has agreed to retain the Allegany River bridge at Red House to be used for foot travel only, when the Allegany Reservoir is created by the Kinzua Dam, Cattaraugus County supervisors were informed Wednesday. This information was contained in a letter from Norman W. Krapf, PW district engineer, to George D. Heron, president of the Seneca Nation of Indians.”
1964, March 7 – At a regular session of Council held at the old Thomas Indian School, President Heron reported on the status of HR 1795 – the bill to compensate the Seneca Nation for our loss of lands for the Kinzua Dam project. The bill had passed the House on February 7th and was now in the hands of a Senate Interior and Insular subcommittee on Indian Affairs. President Heron reported the $19,673,585 House bill was expected to be drastically cut by the Senate.
Later that day Martha Flammang presented a women’s suffrage petition to the Council. There were about 75 in attendance of which more than half were women. Fresh from a meeting of 28 women on the Cattaraugus Territory who met at the home of Laura Cook the night before, Mrs. Flammang told the Council the women of the Nation were not asking for the privilege of holding office, but only for the right to vote. She later pledged “to wage an all-out campaign” to win the vote adding, “I have learned to be persistent. I have had to wait a good long time for many of the things I have wanted, and I want this very much for the good of our Nation.” Following discussion on amending the constitution, Councillor Lawrence Mohr, Jr. moved, seconded by Delbert Crowe, to appoint Councillors Walden Jimerson, Quinton Biscup, and Elmer Steeprock to a committee for the revision of the constitution.
1964, March 9 – The Senate Indian Affairs subcommittee slashed HR 1794 to $9,127,000. Sen. Frank Church (D-ID), committee chairman, defended the action by saying it was “consistent with the most generous treatment heretofore given an Indian tribe under similar circumstances.” Believing $3-4 million was sufficient, committee member Sen. Peter H. Dominick (R-CO) had pushed for cutting the bill by $16,931,000. Dominick settled for including an amendment to the bill requiring the Seneca Nation to come up with a plan for termination within 2 years. President Heron responded, “The termination amendment proposed for the HR 1794 bill therefore serves no purpose other than to alienate our lands.”
1964, March 24 – Cornplanter descendants were at the U.S. District Court in Erie, PA to argue for the relocation of the 350 graves and Cornplanter’s monument located on the Grant to a site of their own choosing. The federal judge ultimately ruled in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the graves and monument were moved to the new Riverview-Corydon cemetery.
1964, March 25 – In an article on termination in the edition of The Kinzua Planning Newsletter, editor Merrill Bowen called out U.S. Sen. Peter Dominick (R-CO) for the senator’s efforts to slash the bill by up to 86% and his insertion of a termination clause. Bowen wrote, “It is essential that each and every member of the Seneca Nation fully understand the so-called termination policy as expressed by the 83rd Congress. The ultimate aim of this Congressional sentiment is to bring about the breakup of Indian tribes throughout the country by doing away with the reservations; compel the Indian to pay taxes on such lands as he may own and force him into this big melting pot which they so fondly refer to. Quit being Indians, give up your customs and act like a white man. In essence this is what termination amounts to and is what Senator Dominick would like to see happen.” He continued, “It is completely unrelated to our rehabilitation bill and is cleverly disguised and is the work of an ardent John Bircher using Communist tactics.”
Sen. Dominick took affront to the John Birch and Communist labels and issued a letter to Bowen several months later. Calling the characterizations “wholly false” and “contemptibly inflammatory” he demanded that Bowen issue an apology to him and the entire Senate committee membership. Dominick’s letter was quickly followed by letters from three other senators on the committee fully supporting Dominick’s actions to slash HR 1794 and to attach the termination clause. Sen. Milward Simpson (R-WY) went so far as to assure he would “resist any attempt to schedule further conferences unless and until a retraction” and apology were made by Bowen.
Bowen responded, “I wish to apologize to you and your colleagues on the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs for the most unfortunate language and personal references contained in one sentence of the article on ‘Termination.’ Perhaps you will understand this momentary loss of emotional control if you realize that Seneca Indians regard the Termination Amendment as a most serious threat to our survival as a people. Indeed, in view of your feeling that you should have been consulted prior to the writing of the NEWSLETTER article, we are sure you will understand our reaction about the introduction of a termination amendment to H.R. 1794 without any notice whatever to the Seneca Nation and without consideration in any public hearings.”
1964, March 30 – S 1836, the Senate version of HR 1794, was called up for a vote by the full Senate and was passed without objection at $9,126,550.
Meanwhile the federal government had commenced condemnation filings in federal court in August 1963. By March 1964 these declarations of taking (stipulations) covered almost half of the 10,000 acres that would eventually be taken for the Allegheny River reservoir project. Mrs. Hildreth Kenjockety was the first to sign a stipulation at the Seneca Nation office on Main Street in Salamanca on this date.
