Tuscarora Reservation

The Tuscarora Reservation (Tuscarora: Nyučirhéʔę) is an Indian reservation of the Tuscarora Nation (Tuscarora: Skarù·ręʔ Kayedá·kreh) in Niagara County, New York. The reservation population was 1,152 at the 2010 census.

The Tuscarora Nation, previously named the Tuscarora Nation of New York, is a federally recognized tribe of Tuscarora people. The tribe's headquarters is located in Lewiston, New York, and their elected chief is Tom Jonathan.

The Tuscarora is the Sixth Nation in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Their Tuscarora language is an Iroquoian language.

The Tuscarora tribe had migrated in ancient times from the New York area to the South, where they were based in the Carolinas. After an extended conflict with European settlers and other Native Americans at the beginning of the 18th century and defeat in the Tuscarora War, most of the tribe migrated North, beginning in 1722.

They first located in the territory of the Oneida tribe in central New York. By 1765, they declared their tribe fully relocated and said that remnant Tuscarora who stayed in the South would no longer be considered part of the tribe. The Tuscarora and Oneida became allies of the American Continental cause during the American Revolution, and of the United States during the War of 1812. During both wars, they suffered attacks by British armed forces and their First Nations allies in central New York. The Tuscarora were given land from the Seneca tribe (territory which they had taken from the Neutral Nation in the Beaver Wars of the mid-17th century) in 1797. In 1803, the US government granted the Tuscarora a reservation in Niagara County.

University at Buffalo head football coach Frank Mount Pleasant was born on the reservation in 1884.

In 1960, through the efforts of the powerful appointed official, Robert Moses of New York City, New York State seized 550 acres (2.2 km²) of the Tuscarora reservation to form a reservoir for the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant operated by the New York Power Authority. New York needed 1,350 acres (5.5 km²) but only received 550 acres (2.2 km²) and had to pay $1,500 per acre per a United States Supreme Court Decision. This led to a displacement of tribal members and a serious disruption to their economy.^{[citation needed]} After a lengthy court case and appeals, in 2003, the Power Authority agreed to compensate the tribe financially and return some unused land.

On October 26, 2019, it was reported that a Niagara Power Project lost more than 600 acres when Robert Moses flooded the land to create a reservoir. From that time on the Reservation experienced and continues to experience a water shortage with the reservation now sitting on top of the highest point in Niagara. " In 2012, 14 out of 15 wells tested positive for lead; 139 wells were tested for harmful bacteria and 69% tested positive for Total Coliforms, while 22% came back positive for E. coli."