Niagara University’s Lower Level Gallagher, February 15th, 5-9 PM

A film screening and discussion with the filmmakers and members from the Tuscarora, Seneca, and other Haudenosaunee Nations. Come and enjoy Native foods (Corn Soup and Fry Bread)

Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania was a flashpoint in history
for the Seneca Nation of Indians. Completed in 1965, the dam was to mitigate flooding in Pittsburgh, but the 27-mile reservoir
that formed above it inundated the Seneca Indians’ ancestral lands, forcing their removal in breach of one of the United States’
oldest treaties. Set against a backdrop of a federal Indian termination policy, pork-barrel politics, and undisclosed plans for
private hydropower, Lake of Betrayal reveals an untold story from American history-a one-sided battle pitting a small Native
American nation against some of the strongest political, social, and commercial forces in the country. Although the Seneca
suffered irreplaceable cultural losses, the Kinzua crisis became a turning point to build a stronger Seneca Nation.

This story parallels the displacement of Niagara University’s neighbors, the Tuscarora, in 1960. At that time New York State
seized 550 acres of the Tuscarora reservation to form a reservoir for the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant operated by the New
York Power Authority. This led to a displacement of tribal members and a serious disruption to their economy.