Mohawks take down federal dam
HOGANSBURG, N.Y. — A century after the fifirst commercial dam was built on the St. Regis River, blocking the spawning runs of salmon and sturgeon, the stream once central to the traditional culture of New York’s Mohawk Tribe is f l owing freely once again.
T h e r e m o v a l o f t h e 1 1 - foot - hi g h Hogansburg Dam thi s fall i s the latest in the tribe’s decades-long struggle to restore territory defifiled by industrial pollution, beginning in the 1980s with PCBs and heavy metals from nearby General Motors, Alcoa and Reynolds Metal plants. A cleanup under federal oversight is nearly complete.
The St. Regis River project is the first removal of an operating hydroelectric dam in New York state and the nation’s fifirst decommissioning of a federally licensed dam by a Native American tribe, federal officials say. Paired with the recent success of North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux halting work on a pipeline they feared could threaten their water supply, the dam’s removal underscores longstanding concern over the health of tribal lands.
“We look at this not only as reclaiming the resources and our land, but also taking back this scar on our landscape that’s a constant reminder of those days of exploitation,” said Tony David, water resources manager for the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, which the Mohawks call Akwesasne.
The former industrial site will become a focal point in the Mohawks’ cultural restoration program, funded by a 19 million settlement in 2013 with GM, Alcoa and Reynolds for pollution of tribal fishing and hunting grounds along the St. Lawrence River. The program partners young apprentices with tribal elders to preserve the Mohawk language and pass on traditional practices such as hunting, fifishing, trap- ping, basket-making, horticulture and medicine.
S t a ndi ng on t he ro c ky edge of a shallow, rushing river that was stilled by a 330-foot-long concrete dam until backhoes demolished it in September, David said a new park will be built to showcase Mohawk artwork where the powerhouse once hummed.
On the opposite bank, a nature park will replace a treacherous tangle of industrial equipment, decrepit structures and trash.
“We’re transforming it f ro m a da nge rous no - go zone to someplace that’s inviting and beautiful,” said Eric Sunday, an apprentice in the cultural restoration program.