Lake of Betrayal explores the history of Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania and its impact on the Seneca Nation of Indians. Completed in 1965, it was originally proposed to help mitigate flooding in Pittsburgh—200 miles downriver, but the 27-mile reservoir that formed behind it inundated vast tracts of the Seneca Indians’ ancestral lands, forcing their removal in breach of the United States’ oldest treaty then in effect. The film looks at the Seneca Nation’s fight to protect its sovereignty against the U.S. government’s Indian termination policy and overwhelming political and economic forces driving the post-WWII boom.

Educational Resources: Viewer Discussion Guide
Program Length: 57 minutes
Production Staff: Writer/Director: Paul Lamont
Producer/Writer: Scott Sackett
Associate Producer: Caleb Abrams (Seneca)
Editor: Chris Bové
Narrator: Gary Farmer
Composer: Brent Michael Davids (Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation)
Production Company: Toward Castle Films & Skipping Stone Pictures
Public Broadcast Release: October 2017

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Tags: Historical, Seneca, Iroquois, New Release

Product ID: LAKE-17-H

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