Kinzua dam in song

Last week, we reported on the Seneca Nation’s decision to seek the federal license to operate the Kinzua Dam in northwestern Pennsylvania.  It will be a fascinating story to watch because, as Seneca president Robert Odawi Porter told me, there’s a significant element of revenge at play.

The Army Corps of Engineers built the dam in the 1960s despite strenuous Seneca opposition.  600 Seneca people were forced from their homes; burial grounds and a longhouse were flooded by the rising waters behind the dam.

As anyone involved in the St. Lawrence power dam relicensing knows, these things take years and require a give and take from dozens of interest groups and agencies.  It’s too early to know how seriously the Senecas’ bid will be taken.

The Nation at least has the lead in the American songbook.  Alert listener Everett of Canton turned me on to Jim Pepper’s “Senecas (As Long as the Grass Shall Grow)”.  It’s the story of the Senecas’ fight against the dam.

Turns out Johnny Cash recorded it, too, on his Bitter Tears album, which is all about Native Americans (after Cash had learned he was part Cherokee). The lyrics are bitter:

Washington Adams and Kennedy now hear their pledges ring
The treaties are safe we’ll keep our word but what is that gurgling
It’s the back water from Perfidy Lake it’s rising all the time
Over the homes and over the fields and over the promises fine
No boats will sail on Lake Perfidy in winter it will fill
In summer it will be a swamp and all the fish will kill
But the Government of the USA has corrected George’s vow
The father of our country must be wrong what’s an Indian anyhow.

Here’s Johnny Cash’s version of the song:

UPDATE: As alert reader “scompton” points out, the song was originally written and recorded by native musician, Peter LaFarge.

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4 Comments on “Kinzua dam in song”

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  1. S. Compton says:

    David,

    While the Cash version is the more popular, the song was originally written by native artist Peter LaFarge.

    Sean

  2. S. Compton says:

    PS – I strongly believe that revenge is far too overlooked as an economic development strategy. Fight the power.

    Sean

  3. Jackie Sauter says:

    And way back in the 1960s, Buffy Sainte Marie’s fairly famous song “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone” had a line in it about the Kinzua Dam:
    Can you remember the times
    That you have held your head high
    And told all your friends of your Indian claim
    Proud good lady and proud good man
    Your great-great grandfather from Indian blood sprang
    And you feel in your heart for these ones
    Oh it’s written in books and in song
    That we’ve been mistreated and wronged
    Well over and over I hear the same words
    From you good lady and you good man
    Well listen to me if you care where we stand
    And you feel you’re a part of these ones
    When a war between nations is lost
    The loser, we know, pays the cost
    But even when Germany fell to your hands
    Consider dear lady, consider dear man
    You left them their pride and you left them their land
    And what have you done to these ones
    Has a change come about Uncle Sam
    Or are you still taking our lands
    A treaty forever George Washington signed
    He did dear lady, he did dear man
    And the treaty’s being broken by Kinzua Dam
    And what will you do for these ones
    Oh, it’s all in the past you can say
    But it’s still going on here today
    The government now want the Iroquois land
    That of the Seneca and the Cheyenne
    It’s here and it’s now you can help us dear man
    Now that the buffalo’s gone.

  4. Pete Klein says:

    As long as we are all interested in where to cut money from the federal budget, how about with get rid of the Army Corps of Engineers?
    I would like to add them to my hit list which includes the DEA and the ATF.

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