" As Long As The Grass Shall Grow " an introduction

“As Long As The Grass Shall Grow And The Rivers Flow” are the words used to conclude may treaties with the Native American people – not one of which was ever honored by the United States government. The once great hunting grounds of the North American plains – land of the Lakota people, once misnamed “Sioux”. What remains today of the once great hunting grounds of the North American plains – land of the Lakota people, once named “Sioux”-   these sacred lands,  is by now a well known but still festering and forgotten American sore. Desolate, miserable Native American reserves alongside wealthy white towns and tourist attractions – built on land stolen literally out from under the Lakota people through treaties never once respected by the U.S. government. Amusement parks which profane Holy Indian land, the faces of the White man’s conquest carved literally into the stone of the sacred Black Hills which are as Holy to the Lakota as is Mecca to the Muslims, or Jerusalem to the Hebrews. Battlefield  transformed into stages for the reenactment of the days of the Wild Wild West where Native Americans perform the dances of their once great culture for the fleeting enjoyment of passing tourists. For the Lakota people there is little left of the great hunting grounds but ghettos, malnutrition, alcoholism, soaring teenage suicide, and the acquiescence to white authority and its system of justice. 
                             

 Chief Cornplanter 1750/1836

                (GY-ANT-WA-CHIA) The Last War Chief of the Senecas

Land for the Seneca
Pennsylvania gave Cornplanter a piece of land on March 16, 1796. It was in Warren County. The land was a gift to thank him for helping the state. He took his people to live there. It was called the Cornplanter Tract. By 1798 400 Seneca lived on the land. It was not a reservation. The land belonged to Cornplanter and his people.

What happened to the Cornplanter Tract?
Cornplanter’s people lived on the land. As time went on, some people moved away. Some went to other larger reservations. After a while people only lived on the land in the summer. In 1964 the last person moved away. Pennsylvania built a dam and flooded the area. Today it is a reservoir.