TUSCARORA ENVIRONMENT

The relicensing interview questions were developed with these topics in mind:

• Traditional/sustenance and economic practices [i.e. farming, hunting, fishing, beadworking, etc.]
• Traditional/recreational practices or events [i.e. The Feast, lacrosse, basketball, etc.]
• Language, family, social and political groups within, and outside of, Tuscarora [i.e. harmony in clans, Council, family, and external relations with off-Nation groups and communities]
• Emotional well-being [i.e. family values, cultural unity, self-esteem, and confidence]

Thanks to the handful of Tuscarora interviewers and the more than 40 interviewees for their sharing and hard work. We collected more than 550 pages of interviews and expanded our old picture collection to include a lot from pre-1955.

August 19, 2004

[A short sample of an interview conducted on the Tuscarora Nation discussing the life of the Nation before and after the Power Project.]

Interviewer: When did you hear about the reservoir coming to Tuscarora?
Interviewee: Like I say, I think it was, I try to remember back when but I was going to school so it had to be in the period of time like in the fall or the spring that we were going to school. And that’s when they started fighting when they wanted to bring some equipment in and that. But before they brought the equipment in it was like I say it was a theory that they’re gonna use the reservation land. And again people says oh they’d never win that in court, they’d never win that in court. The forefathers of the Nation all said they would not disturb the Indians. They’d be there forever but I think a lot of people really believed it. I know I did. Maybe that the age of awakening or whatever, you know. But it also caused dissention with the surrounding communities of the reservation because on that end of the reservation besides the Patterson’s farm on the reserve, there was farms that were off the reserve. And they had the same feelings as us but they didn’t want their land taken. But yet the Town of Niagara didn’t want land taken. Town of Lewiston didn’t want land taken. And of course Niagara University didn’t want land taken either. So a lot of the communities on that side says well why not, you know, they had hard feelings against the Indians for a long time because their land is no good. They’re just trees and empty fields and stuff like that but actually the Patterson’s farm was a lot of land at the time. In fact, all those big fields that are along Garlow Road, they farmed those. Not all of them belonged to them but they rented the fields because they had a big farm and I think when they had to move, I think their farming dropped off real heavy because it was too far for them to travel to go to those fields and stuff like that. But they did a lot of farming. Fruit and grain and corn and stuff like that because they always had cattle. They always had cattle. But the surrounding communities, I know there was a lot of hard feelings between the Town of Niagara people, Town of Lewiston people against the reserve because why not take the reserve. They’d say why not take that part. Nobody using that. It don’t mean nothing to them.

Interviewer: So in a sense they’re saying take their land instead of ours?
Interviewee: Right.

Interviewer: Now where were you hearing that? Was it in the newspapers, on TV?

Interviewee: Word of mouth mostly, yah. Some articles in the newspapers were biased, real biased. And they wouldn’t come out right and say it in those words but that’s what they were saying about. And there was, I remember seeing one article, one cartoon article in the Gazette. You could probable find it at the library. They used to make jokes about it, you know, and the one cartoon they were surveyors were measuring and they had a transit set up and they had two guys with tapes. And the one guy had the thing around saying, “so many feet and two Indians.” Because the tape went over top of two Indians.

Interviewer: Oh yah.
Interviewee: You know and the Indians were dressed as Indians would be dressed as if he was at a pow wow or something, you know. I thought that, what I got out of the articles as a young person they were trying to make fun of the Indians and trying to sway different people’s thinking about, yah, we should take the reservation.

***  Interview Audio Clip  *** 

Coming Soon.

In December 2006 a Tuscarora Environment Impact Statement [EIS] was completed and mailed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to address the Niagara Power Project [FERC No.2216-066] relicensing. A copy of the Tuscarora EIS is available at the Tuscarora Indian School and Tuscarora Environment Office for review by the Tuscarora public.

The Tuscarora EIS used audio clips from the oral history interviews to describe the impacts the Niagara Power Project had and still has on the Tuscarora Nation. The clips from the Tuscarora EIS are organized by the FERC EIS categories.

Names of the Tuscarora Nation elders interviewed were removed and are listed by their age and gender only. If you are interested in finding out the name of the interviewee, we can help you indentify them at the TEP office.

To access the document at the School, please follow the procedure to enter the school and then ask to visit the library. The document's audio CDs can be listened to on the library's computers. The audio CDs are not available for check out or removal from the library. Please abide by this as we want it accessible for everyone.

Directions on using the audio cds are included in the report. For more information please contact the TEP Office, 609.3810.