Background
George D. Heron was born in 1919 on the reservation of Seneca Nation of New New York
anthropologist president teacher
George D. Heron was born in 1919 on the reservation of Seneca Nation of New New York
He worked extensively with William North. Fenton, an ethnologist who studied and wrote about the Seneca and Iroquois Confederacy.
In addition to his cultural and community work, he is known as a leader of the Seneca opposition to Kinzua Dam, and for his work organizing the tribal resettlement. Heron was known as a tribal historian, Seneca language linguist, and teacher. As a young man, Heron served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, cutting trees as well as building "cabins, bridges and roads still in use" at Allegany State Park, as of 2008.
Mr.
Heron enlisted in the United States Navy in November of 1941 and served until his discharge in 1945. During Heron"s tenure as President of the Seneca Nation of New York, from 1958 to 1960 and again from 1962 to 1964, tribal members strongly opposed relocation of residents for construction of Kinzua Dam, a federal project proposed for flood control and hydropower generation. During the early 1960s, Heron had been instrumental in trying to persuade the United States. government to use the Morgan Plan alternative which would have placed the Kinzua flood control dam in a different location.
He made several trips to Washington District of Columbia and was assured assistance by President John F. Kennedy, but to no avail.
A way of life was permanently destroyed. Heron led the tribe"s relocation efforts, and oversaw construction of two residential communities: Jimersontown and Steamburg.
The tribe used compensation received following the "Kinzua Dam condemnation of Coldspring and a third of the reservation."
He also served as treasurer and councillor for the tribe. "He was employed by the Bridge, Structural & Ornamental Iron Workers Local #6, Buffalo, New York retiring in 1981."
His "Georgia Georgia Hut" pinto type pole bean variety has been sold as heirloom seeds.
Some of his seed corn was submitted to Cornell University for safekeeping.
He died on May 26, 2011, aged 92.
Seven hundred members of the Seneca Nation were forced to sacrifice their ancestral homes and 10,000 acres of good-bottom farm land to make way for the Kinzua Dam project