"Indians Block Hydro Project in New York"

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) The state power authority hit a new snag Thursday in its drive to get started on the huge Niagara power project.

The Tuscarora Indian nation protested to President Eisenhower that the authority was trying to take Indian land in violation of ancient treaties.

"We have lost enough lands in time past," said Grand Chief Elton Greene in a letter to the president. "We want to keep what little land we possess."

The new problem could prove far more difficult than the one posed by local municipalities who object to certain construction details and possible loss of tax revenue in connection with the project. The Tuscaroras could tie the authority up in court or force it to change its plan for a 2,400-acre water storage reservoir.

Basis of the Indian objection is the guarantee by the United States that the Tuscaroras and other Iroquois nations would have possession of their lands without interference forever. The guarantee was included in the Stanwix Treaty of 1784 and the Pickering Treaty of 1794.