Dr. Jason Corwin will give a talk on the Kinzua Dam and its effects on the Seneca Nation. Jason will provide a timeline of the Seneca, from their creation in the Finger Lakes to their eventual settlement along the Ohi:yo’ (Allegheny River) to the creation of the Kinzua Dam and its after-effects. Questions are encouraged. Dr. Jason Corwin (Seneca Nation, Deer Clan) is the Executive Director of the Seneca Media & Communications Center, as well as a member of the Seneca Nation’s Watershed Resources Working Group, COVID Response Task Force, and Climate Change Task Force. He has worked extensively as a both a community and university-based media and environmental educator. Jason earned a PhD in Natural Resources from Cornell University, is the co-founder of the community organizations Defend Ohi:yo' and Sustainable Indigenous Futures, and has produced many documentaries on Seneca, Indigenous, and social justice topics. He enjoys spending his time outdoors hunting for edible and medicinal mushrooms, deer, and photos of the night sky.

Dr. L.H. Roper is a Professor in the SUNY New Paltz department of history, whose research focuses on early America. He'll discuss the wider world of early Schenectady, touching on the culture and politics that influenced the colonial town. Dr. Roper's many publications include seven books on early America, including "The Seventeenth-Century Worlds of the Hudson Valley" and "Constructing Early Modern Empires: Proprietary Colonies in the Atlantic World, 1500-1750," as well as myriad scholarly articles, the most recent of which are “Fear and the Genesis of the English Empire in America” in Fear and the Shaping of Early American Societies (2016) and “The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Imperial Formation” in The New England Quarterly (2014). Dr. Roper is also the Chair of the Scholarly Advisory Board at Historic Huguenot Street, and serves on the boards of several institutes studying early American history. This is a virtual program, which is free for SCHS members, otherwise $5. Registration is at www.schenectadyhistorical.org/programs. A Zoom link will be emailed to all registrants prior to the virtual program