SALAMANCA — Nearly five years in the making, Salamanca alumnus Caleb Abrams has helped produce a feature-length documentary on the building of the Kinzua Dam and the relocation of hundreds of Seneca people from their homes along the Allegheny River.
“It’s completely surreal, but incredibly rewarding,” Abrams said in a recent conversation with The Press. “To know that it’s shown across the country, and to be present at screenings at universities across the region, it’s amazing.”
The documentary, “Lake of Betrayal,” was shown Monday to the students and staff of Salamanca High School with the film’s director, producer and associate producer Abrams in attendance as a way to begin Honoring Indigenous Peoples Week.
After graduating high school, Abrams attended Jamestown Community College and produced a 25-minute student documentary on the Kinzua Dam and the Seneca relocation in the 1960s, but it didn’t start out that way.
Initially, Abrams said he intended to make a music video to the Johnny Cash song “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow,” which documents the event.
“When I pitched the project to my classmates, none of them knew the story of Kinzua, and these were all Western New Yorkers,” he recalled. “So I was compelled to expand my five-minute music video into a 25-minute student documentary.”
Abrams’s student film featured interviews with his father and grandmother, Becky Bowen of the Seneca Nation archives department and Salamanca teachers Sue John Blacksnake and Jerry Musial.
“My father, grandparents, uncles and a lot of my extended family were among those Seneca — over 600 — that were forced to relocate after the dam was constructed, so this is a very personal story for me,” he said.
It was through that student film that director Paul Lamont and producer Scott Sackett, both from Buffalo, found Abrams. He said they contacted him over Facebook in 2013 after learning of his JCC project.
“They wanted to talk to me about the project and potentially getting involved in some capacity,” Abrams said. “And I did, first as a researcher and was later promoted to an associate producer.”
A 2009 SALAMANCA graduate, Abrams said he spoke to some of Michelle Hill’s media classes the morning before the screening. He said it was a cool experience for him to come back because her classes were his introduction to video editing, working with cameras and all things media.
“I want to shout out to the program, to Mrs. Hill and my principal when I went to school here, Mr. (Donnald) Hensel, for developing that program,” he said.
Growing up in Salamanca, Abrams said it is a unique place that he didn’t fully appreciate until moving away because it’s unlike anywhere else in the world.
“As a city that leases land from an Indian nation, it’s a very unique arrangement that we have here,” he said. “It’s important that we know our history, and this is very much all of our history that we need to know.”
Sackett said although the film has been shown at colleges and universities across the country, they’ve presented it at only two high schools. He said they’re very fortunate to be watching it together.
Before the film began, Sackett asked the students to pay attention to three scenes in the film and to think about what they mean: a scene with students at the Allegany Indian School in Red House, a game show scene and the film’s final scene with someone fishing.
Lamont said it was an honor and pleasure to be in Salamanca, adding it’s great to come into schools, universities and communities to share this story. He said it’s not just a Seneca history but a shared history and everyone’s story.
“I think it’s important that you understand that this is a national film, but every national film — every national story — comes from somebody’s backyard,” he said. “This story happens to be your backyard, and it’s an important story and one that needs to be shared.”
Lamont said to be welcomed by the Seneca Nation and its assistance in making the film was an honor. He said they were thankful to have Abrams help them along the way, introducing them to wonderful people and being able to listen to the stories from the Seneca elders.
“I would love to see this create some kind of conversation and discussion about the shared history that we have among us,” he added.
AFTER THE FILM, Seneca teacher Rachael Wolfe said everyone should be proud because they watched a part of their history told in their way and in their words.
“Whether you’re Seneca or not, you are from this community, and therefore it makes this history also your history, so you should be very proud to see what you saw today, to be privileged in that way,” she said.
Seneca people have always been a people of great resilience, Wolfe said, because a lot of things have happened to them which makes them question how can they exist as people today. She said keeping things like their language, songs, dances and culture as a whole alive is what makes them Seneca.
“And so because of that we are resilient, and we have managed to get through incidents like Kinzua Dam and still exist as a group of people,” she said. “And for that we should be very proud.”
More than four years after pre-production began, “Lake of Betrayal” premiered on the Allegany territory in September at the Ray Evans Seneca Theater on Main Street. Since then, it has been broadcast multiple times and shown in screenings across the country.
Abrams said because the history of the Kinzua Dam is not taught outside the immediate region, it’s important that everyone now has an opportunity to understand this shared history.
“It has been an honor to be part of this project and be part of shaping this film that has the potential to really define a national audience’s understanding of what happened here.”
DVDs of the film will be available for purchase online in the coming weeks, Abrams said. They plan to continue screening the documentary at colleges and universities.
Because the film is a National Public Television documentary, it can be viewed across the country and screened for the next four years. To request the film play in your area, contact your local PBS station or affiliate to inquire when it can be broadcast.
(Contact reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com.)
