Seneca Nation of Indians

Seneca Nation of Indians. Keeper of the Western Door. The Allegany Courthouse served as the primary gathering place for regular meetings of the Seneca Council, beginning in 1920. Over the next forty years, the Allegany Courthouse served as the governmental center of the Seneca Nation. During this time, the building served as the socio-political epicenter for two major, nearly simultaneous Seneca Nation battles: to halt the Kinzua Dam Project and to obtain the right to vote for Seneca women), Between 1936 and 1966, the Allegany Courthouse served as the primary location where the Seneca Nation discussed debated, and formulated strategies to prevent the United States government from taking 10,000 acres of treaty protected Seneca lands along the Allegany River. After a lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to protect their lands in the mid-twentieth century, one-third of the Allegany Territory land was flooded by the Kinzua Dam, beginning in 1966. As a result, the Seneca people suffered the taking loss, and destruction of ancestral hunting, fishing and gathering areas, farms, homes, churches, schools, the ceremonial longhouse and burial grounds, and the forced relocation of over 600 people. While creating deep emotional and psychological wounds that last to this day, the resistance to the Kinzua Dam that occurred at the Allegany Courthouse ultimately strengthened Seneca determination to protect their sovereignty, helped to create a new generation of activists who have been instrumental in creating numerous educational and economic opportunities for the Nation, and advanced the suffrage movement of Seneca women., The first record of Seneca women seeking the right to vote in Nation elections occurred at the Courthouse in 1935. Although the first attempt was unsuccessful, during the Kinzua Dam controversy, Seneca women staffed committees, testified before the United States Congress, and helped organize the removal. It was the women's participation and strong leadership role in the fight against the dam that finally influenced the male-dominated leadership to grant women the right to vote and hold office. In the Seneca Nation, and in 1964, in this building, Seneca women were given the right to vote. The Allegany Courthouse is one of the few surviving public buildings from this era remaining on the Seneca Territory, and it was the political and social nucleus of activity for these historic events, both of which continue to impact the Seneca Nation today.