From Wired.com:
Niagara Falls is a beautiful marvel of nature indeed, but urban planners were more interested in the falls’ potential to generate copious amounts of electricity.
Of course, to produce power, the project needed a reservoir with a pumping plant, which would require land. Robert Moses, a famously elitist urban planner, didn’t wish to burden the white residents of Lewiston, New York, with taxes and an enormous construction project. So for four years, he fought the Tuscarora Indians for their land instead.