The Erie Canal is often revered as putting New York on the map and as a catalyst for westward expansion. Researchers are working on integrating historically accurate revisions into the celebrated narrative about the construction of the canal, which they said has traditionally failed to recognize the devastation of marginalized communities. That includes the displacement of indigenous peoples for canal construction.
“When you start to talk about these other more complicated aspects of the Erie Canal history, there's like a cognitive dissonance or something's coming up, I think, for people where they can't reconcile what they've been told their whole lives with this other aspect of history,” said Danielle Nagle, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. “That's why I think it's so important that we start talking about the full complex picture and all the nuance involved in it, because a lot of the details have been left out of the history.”
Historically, the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous American populations' perspectives regarding the Erie Canal have been excluded, said Renee Barry, a former research fellow at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, New York. Barry said this has led to inaccurate representations of the canal’s impact.
“We're like 200 years into reinforcing the same understanding of the Erie Canal, which many people have been taught since they were children. But I think it's important to acknowledge who is shaping these narratives,” Barry said. “Whiteness has shaped the way the Erie Canal history is being discussed, and it's time to bring in different perspectives and center different ideas, specifically listening to the people whose land the Erie Canal trespasses.”
Displacement caused by the canal was made possible due to state and federal policies, such as the Buffalo Treaty 1826, which allowed for white settlers to inhabit the western terminus of the canal. Local tribes had a majority of their land stolen, with the Seneca losing three quarters of their territory. There was also a series of 27 illegal treaties that ignored prior legal agreements that protected Haudenosaunee stewardship of the land.
“It was always about this plan to connect waterways across New York State to expand west. That was all it ever was,” said Neal Powless, a member of the Onondaga Eel Clan. “It wasn’t about friendship. It wasn't about respecting and honoring the treaties that were made.”
The Erie Canal gave way to controversial historical decisions
By 1923, the Erie Canal was effectively no longer in use in Syracuse. But the upheaval of marginalized communities in Syracuse continued with the demolishing of the 15th Ward, a historically black neighborhood located along the canal. In the 1960s, there was a debate about where to construct the Interstate 81 viaduct, or I-81.
One proposal suggested demolishing the historic Wheelock Building, which is now the Erie Canal Museum. The other option was to bulldoze the 15th Ward. Canal lovers lobbied to spare the museum, and New York’s governor diverted the route of I-81 to the east. This displaced longtime residents and essentially demolished the 15th Ward, wiping out the homes of many black Jewish and immigrant families.
“I think it's important to acknowledge that one of them was a home, one of them was a community, and the other one was preserved for the sake of the memory of the Erie Canal. That's why today we still have the Erie Canal Museum and we don't have the 15th Ward anymore,” Barry said. “So this very complicated, complex history of Erie Canal preservation, I think, gets into questions of what do we value? What do we preserve? And whose voices get listened to?”
Listen to the full episode of Canal Keepers here or wherever you get podcasts.
