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72-756: Being centrally located, they are considered the "Keepers of the Fire" ( Kayečisnakwe’nì·yu in Tuscarora ) in the figurative longhouse that shelters the Five Nations. The Cayuga and Seneca have territory to their west and the Oneida and Mohawk to their east. For this reason, the League of the Iroquois historically met at the Iroquois government's capital at Onondaga , as the traditional chiefs do today. In

144-493: A heritage language by teaching children from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. The language can appear complex to those unfamiliar with it more in terms of its grammar than its sound system. Many ideas can be expressed in a single word. Most words involve several components that must be considered. The language is written using mostly symbols from the Roman alphabet , with some variations, additions, and diacritics . Tuscarora

216-539: A desperate delaying action in order to allow the escape of refugees to Fort Niagara . They were brushed aside at the Battle of Newtown by Sullivan's army of 4,500 men. The Sullivan Expedition caused great destruction during the subsequent scorched earth campaign. They methodically razed villages, burned fields, and destroyed stored foodstuffs throughout the Seneca and Cayuga homeland. The Seneca suffered terribly during

288-530: A grave with no marker. In 1866, however, the State of Pennsylvania installed a monument over his grave, "believed to be first monument erected in honor of a Native American in the United States." Hon. James Ross Snowden of Philadelphia gave the dedicatory address, saying in part: He was a dauntless warrior and wisest statesman of his nation, the patriarch of this tribe and the peacemaker of his race. He

360-667: A member of his mother's clan , the Wolf Clan. When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, Cornplanter urged the Seneca to remain neutral. He is reported to have said, "War is war. Death is death. A fight is a hard business." Initially, both the British and the Americans also wanted the Iroquois to remain neutral. As the war progressed, however, the British began encouraging the Iroquois to "take up

432-588: A nominal, even if it is a verb or particle. The basic word order in Tuscarora is SVO (subject–verb–object), but this can vary somewhat and still form grammatical sentences, depending on who the agents and patients are. For example: If two nouns of the same relative "status" are together in a sentence, the SVO word order is followed. Such is the case, for example, in a noun-predicate-noun sentence in which both nouns are third person zoic (non-human) singular. If one

504-529: A number of trips to Philadelphia, and later Washington , to strengthen relationships and meet with those who were interested in his people. He tried to understand Euro-American culture, as he felt it necessary for successful relations between the Iroquois and the United States. Cornplanter was particularly impressed by the beliefs and practices of the Quakers . Like the Quakers, Cornplanter and his half-brother,

576-647: A piece of paper held by someone. Attributive suffixes come in many forms: A diminutive indicates something smaller; an augmentive makes something bigger. A simple example would be a diminutive suffix added to the word "cat" to form a word meaning "small cat." A more abstract example would be the diminutive of "trumpet" forming "pipe." Both diminutives and augmentives have suffixes that indicate both smallness and plurality. A (certain) diminutive can be added to any functional nominal. Augmentives usually combine with other morphemes, forming more specific stems. Attributive suffixes can be added to any word that functions as

648-598: A string of wampum (shell beads). The wampum is employed in all matters of public importance. Their funerals were known to be quiet and solemn, with the women covering their faces. There were also special events such as the Planting Feast which would happen in May or when the Onondaga believed the ground was ready. This was three days for penitential and religious services. One day for the children's dance, and one each for

720-528: A task which traditionally was done by women. In 1794, Cornplanter was a signatory to the Treaty of Canandaigua . The treaty proclaimed "peace and friendship" between the United States of America and the Iroquois, and affirmed their land rights in the state of New York . Three years later he signed the Treaty of Big Tree that established Seneca reservations within their traditional territory. Eventually, Cornplanter became disillusioned with his relationship with

792-542: A traditional matriachal form of government, wherein chiefs are nominated by clan mothers, rather than elected. One's clan is determined by their matrilineal lineage, meaning that clan membership is inherited from the mother. Membership in the Onondaga is also exclusively inherited matrilineally. The clan system extends throughout the Haudenosaunee, and clan members from other nations are considered family. In total there are nine clans: Onondaga peoples believe it

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864-511: A verb root. More complex stems are formed by adding modifiers. Roots might be combined with many different kinds of morphemes to create complicated stems. Possibilities include reflexive, inchoative, reversive, intensifier, and distributive morphemes, instrumental, causative, or dative case markers, and also incorporated noun stems. The base may be further complicated by ambulative or purposive morphemes. Aspect suffixes are temporal indicators, and are used with all indicative verbs. "Aspect"

936-404: A voiceless fricative, it often sounds similar to /s/ . /s/ followed by /j/ or sometimes /i/ often becomes [ʃ] . Used here is a type of linguistic notation. Aloud, the first bullet point would read, " /s/ becomes [ʃ] when preceded by /t/ ." The basic construction of a verb consists of in that order. All verbs contain at least a pronominal prefix and a verb base. These are

1008-400: Is a Northern Iroquoian language. This branch of Iroquois includes Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Seneca , and Cayuga along with Tuscarora and its historic neighbor, Nottoway . Wallace Chafe posits that a larger language, reconstructed as Proto-Northern-Iroquois , broke off into Proto-Tuscarora-Cayuga , and then broke off onto its own, having no further contact with Cayuga or any of

1080-441: Is less common than other words from other languages or verbal descriptions that turned to nominals. In many cases a pronominal prefix has dropped off, so that only the minimal stem remains. Ownership is divided into alienable and inalienable possession , each of which type has its own construction. An example of inalienable possession would be someone's body part—this cannot be disputed. An example of alienable possession would be

1152-589: Is of a "superior" status, it can be indicated by a pronominal prefix, such as hra , and as such SVO, VSO, and OSV are all grammatically correct. The example given in Grammar Tuscarora is: wí:rę:n William wahrákęʔ he-saw-it tsi:r dog. wí:rę:n wahrákęʔ tsi:r William he-saw-it dog. wahrákęʔ Cornplanter John Abeel III ( c.  1752 –February 18, 1836) known as Gaiänt'wakê ( Gyantwachia – "the planter") or Kaiiontwa'kon ( Kaintwakon – "By What One Plants") in

1224-419: Is pronounced [ʃ] . /h/ is generally [h] . There is an affricate is /ts/ . Resonants are /n/ , /ɾ/ , /w/ , /j/ . A rule (below) specifies pre-aspiration under certain circumstances. The resonants can also become voiceless fricatives (as specified below). A voiceless /n/ is described as "a silent movement of the tongue accompanied by an audible escape of breath through the nose." When /ɾ/ becomes

1296-515: Is rarely the case that it is repeated too many times. Most nouns end in the morpheme -eh . Some end in -aʔ , -ęʔ , or -ʔ . In addition to the formal nouns mentioned above, clauses, verbs, and unanalyzable particles can also be classified as nominals. Clausal nominals are such things as sentential subjects and compliments. Verbal nominals usually describe their referents. Unanalyzable particles arise from three main sources which overlap somewhat. Onomatopoeia, from Tuscarora or other languages,

1368-465: Is realized as a postalveolar fricative [ʃ] . The marginal phonemes l and m occur in loanwords. Tuscarora has three stops: /t/ , /k/ , and /ʔ/ ; in their most basic forms: [t] , [k] , and [ʔ] . [kʷ] could be considered separate, although it is very similar to /k/+/w/ , and can be counted as a variant phonetic realization of these two sounds. Each sound has specific changes that take place when situated in certain positions. These are among

1440-427: Is supported by archeological studies. Carbon dating of particular sites of Onondaga habitation shows dates starting close to 1200AD ± 60 years with growth for hundreds of years. In the American Revolutionary War , the Onondaga were at first officially neutral, although individual Onondaga warriors were involved in at least one raid on American settlements. After Americans attacked their main village on April 20, 1779,

1512-536: Is the life-providing direction of Mother Earth, moon, and stars. The more spirited the singing and dancing, the more thanks is given to the Creator. The Onondaga peoples rely on the lunar calendar for their ceremonies that occur, and there are faith-keepers responsible for initiating the ceremonies based on the different moons. Some factors that defined pre-colonial Onondaga life were: The Onondaga in New York have

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1584-484: Is the subject of the sentence. On account of various changes in the evolution of the language, not all of the possible combinations of distinctions in person, number, and gender are made, and some pronominal prefixes or combinations thereof can represent several acceptable meanings. The verb base is, generally, exactly what it sounds like: it is the barest form of the verb. This is a verb stem that consists solely of one verb root. Verb stems can be made of more than just

1656-693: Is their duty to help and support their clan in tough times, sickness, and death. Interclan marriages are mandatory, so a member of one clan can only marry someone outside of their clan. On March 11, 2005, the Onondaga Nation in the town of Onondaga, New York , filed a land rights action in federal court, seeking acknowledgment of title to over 3,000 square miles (7,800 km) of ancestral lands centering in Syracuse, New York . They hoped to obtain increased influence over environmental restoration efforts at Onondaga Lake and other EPA Superfund sites in

1728-512: Is very much like that in verbs. It refers to who or what is being identified. The prefixes vary according to the gender, number, and "humanness" of the noun. Genders include: The prefixes are: Most stems are simple noun roots that are morphologically unanalyzable. These can be referred to as "simplex stems." More complex stems can be derived from verbs this is commonly done as: (verb stem) + (nominalizing morpheme). The process can be repeated multiple times, making more complex stems, but it

1800-629: Is with respect to duration or frequency; "tense" is with respect to the point in time at which the verb's action takes place. Three different aspects can be distinguished, and each distinguished aspect can be furthermore inflected for three different tenses. These are, respectively, punctual, serial, or perfective, and past, future, or indefinite. Nouns , like verbs, are composed of several parts. These are, in this order: Nouns can be divided two ways, formally and functionally, and four ways, into formal nouns, other functional nouns, possessive constructions, and attributive suffixes. The pronominal prefix

1872-780: The Cornplanter Tract . The federal government, however, started construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegany River in 1960. When the dam was completed the Cornplanter Tract was flooded and most of the few remaining residents moved to the Allegany Reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of New York . Before flooding occurred the remains of Cornplanter, his descendants, and an 1866 monument to him were relocated. Cornplanter

1944-765: The Northwest Indian War . In the postwar years, Cornplanter endeavoured to learn more about Euro-American culture and invited Quakers to establish schools in Seneca territory. After the War of 1812 he became disillusioned by his people's poor reaction to Euro-American society. He had the schools closed and embraced his half-brother Handsome Lake 's movement to return to traditional Seneca ways and religion. The United States government granted him about 1500 acres of former Seneca territory in Pennsylvania in 1796 for "him and his heirs forever," which became known as

2016-515: The Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplanter , was a Dutch - Seneca chief warrior and diplomat of the Seneca people . As a war chief, Cornplanter fought in the American Revolutionary War on the side of the British. After the war Cornplanter led negotiations with the United States and was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794), and other treaties. He helped ensure Seneca neutrality during

2088-601: The Siege of Fort Stanwix in August 1777, Cornplanter played a significant role in the ambush of a column of Patriot militia and Oneida at the Battle of Oriskany . In 1778, he joined forces with John Butler and Butler's Rangers at the 1778 Battle of Wyoming in what is now Northeastern Pennsylvania . Roughly 300 Patriot militia and Continentals were killed in what is commonly known as the Wyoming Massacre. The battle

2160-614: The United States before becoming extinct in late 2020. The historic homeland of the Tuscarora was in eastern North Carolina , in and around the Goldsboro , Kinston , and Smithfield areas. The name Tuscarora ( / ˌ t ʌ s k ə ˈ r ɔːr ə / TUS -kə- ROHR -ə ) means "hemp people," after the Indian hemp (hemp dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum ), which they use in many aspects of their society. Skarureh refers to

2232-469: The fledgling government of what the Iroquois called the "Thirteen Fires." He became a negotiator in disputes between the new "Americans" and the Seneca. He was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) , although this treaty was never ratified by the Iroquois. During the Northwest Indian War , Native Americans in what is now Ohio and Indiana mounted a resistance to the encroachment of American settlers into their territory. Cornplanter convinced

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2304-430: The Americans. To fight the drunkenness and despair suffered by many Indians, his half-brother Handsome Lake preached that the Seneca must return to the traditional way of life and take part in religious ceremonies. Cornplanter heeded Handsome Lake's prophecy that they should return to traditional ways and turn away from European assimilation. He burned his military uniform, broke his sword, and destroyed his medals. He closed

2376-543: The British Crown at Six Nations . In the aftermath of the "Sullivan Expedition", following the brutal winter of 1780, there was a massive swarm of periodical cicadas , which emerge from underground every seventeen years. The sudden arrival of such a large quantity of the insects provided a source of sustenance for the Onondaga people who were experiencing severe food insecurity following the Sullivan campaigns and

2448-757: The Four Persons, the Holder for the Heavens, the Thunder, and for gambling. The Strawberry Feast comes when the berries are ripe. This day there are dancing for the Thunder and a feast of strawberries. The Green Bean Dance comes when the green beans are fit for use. This day there are dances for the Thunder and a mixture of war and feather dances. The Green Corn dance always comes after the Green Bean dance. This day there are three days for religious services, one for

2520-424: The New York state line. The cemetery contains what are believed to be the remains of Cornplanter", and some 300 of his descendants and followers. This property has eroded over the years, threatening the preservation of this important cemetery. The Seneca are reminded of their losses due to this damage. In 2009 the state made plans to try to protect the cemetery. The State of Pennsylvania erected an honorary marker at

2592-567: The Onondaga later sided with the majority of the League and fought against the American colonists in alliance with the British . In 1779, George Washington ordered the termination of the Onondaga people, in an operation known as " The Sullivan Expedition ", breaking the neutrality agreement and devastating the Onondaga people. When the United States won independence, many Onondaga followed Joseph Brant to Upper Canada, where they were given land by

2664-541: The Onondaga people. They also adopted many games from European settlers such as mumble the peg, marbles, some games of ball, pull away, and fox and geese in the snow. Hide and seek and blindmanbajj's bluff were played but no games with song. Tuscarora language Tuscarora , sometimes called Skarò˙rə̨ˀ , is the Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people , spoken in southern Ontario , Canada , North Carolina and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls , in

2736-503: The Seneca to remain neutral in this conflict. In addition, he attempted to negotiate with the Shawnee on behalf of the United States. In 1790, Cornplanter and other Seneca leaders travelled to Philadelphia to meet with President George Washington and Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin and protest the treatment of their people. Cornplanter extracted an agreement from Washington and Mifflin to protect Seneca land. Cornplanter made

2808-403: The U.S. government. After much talk, the state finally agreed that the Cornplanter Tract was exempt. Most of the Cornplanter Tract and his village, Diono?sade'gî (Place of burnt house) or Tiononshaté:ken (The house has burnt there), was deserted by the late 1950s, as it was never connected to the electrical grid and was prone to flooding. Before his death in 1836, Cornplanter had requested

2880-545: The United States, in which their right to their homeland was acknowledged by the United States in article II of the treaty. In 1816, 450 Onondaga were living in New York , 210 of whom lived on Buffalo Creek Reservation . The Onondaga Nation was crucial in forming the Iroquois League which led them to be very well revered by their peers. The "Tree of Peace" was planted on Onondaga Land. Onondaga has been regarded as

2952-668: The United States, the home of the Onondaga Nation is the Onondaga Reservation . Onondaga people also live near Brantford, Ontario on Six Nations territory. This reserve used to be Haudenosaunee hunting grounds, but much of the Confederacy relocated there as a result of the American Revolution. Although the British promised the security of Haudenosaunee homelands, the 1783 treaty of Paris ceded

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3024-500: The capital of Iroquois land. The Onondaga were known as the Central Fire-Keepers of the Confederacy. The Onondaga were known as the guardians or watchkeepers of the league. They were keepers of the law in order to preserve traditions and institutions. The culture hero Hyenwatha was an Onondaga Indian and was essential in the early organization of the league. The title of Tadodaho was always held by an Onondaga chief; he

3096-398: The category of resonants. (Mithun Williams, 1976) The range of sounds, though, is more extensive, with palatalization, aspiration, and other variants of the sounds, that usually come when two sounds are set next to each other. There may also be the phonemes /b/ (written as p ) and /f/ (written as f ), although they probably occur only in loan words. The phonemic consonant cluster /sj/

3168-538: The children, one for the Four Persons, one for the Holder of the heavens, and one for the Thunder with the feast. The Onondaga's Thanksgiving feast in October closely resembled the Green Corn Dance. The Onondaga peoples place great emphasis on giving thanks, and this is reflected in their ceremonies. Ceremonial songs would be performed in the longhouse, and danced to in a counter-clockwise direction since this

3240-629: The claimed area. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the Onondagas' claim in 2012, and the Supreme Court in 2013 declined to hear an appeal. On June 29, 2022, 1,023 acres of land were returned to the Onondaga Nation. On September 30, 2024, 1,000 acres of land were returned to the Onondaga Nation. The Onondaga very much enjoyed sports and physical activity. Lacrosse and foot races were always known to be favorites of

3312-479: The fighting along the Niagara River , however, his son Henry and his nephew Chainbreaker, also known as Blacksnake actively supported the Americans. As Cornplanter aged, his influence among the Seneca dwindled in favour of Chainbreaker and Red Jacket . He died in 1836 at his home in the Cornplanter Tract. Cornplanter had an older half-brother, Handsome Lake , who later became a Seneca religious leader. He

3384-432: The following tables: Thus in the official writing system of Tuscarora, the vowels are a e í u ę. The marginal phonemes ą and o occur in loanwords. The Tuscarora language has ten symbols representing consonants, including three stops ( /k/ , /t/ , and /ʔ/ ), three fricatives ( /s/ , /θ/ , and /h/ ), a nasal ( /n/ ), a rhotic ( /ɾ/ ), and two glides ( /w/ and /j/ ). These last four can be grouped together under

3456-595: The following winter. Many froze or starved to death. Cornplanter and his warriors, however, continued to raid American settlements in 1780. In May 1780, Cornplanter and Joseph Brant led an attack on Canojaharie on the Mohawk River . During this raid, Seneca warriors captured Cornplanter's father John Abeel and burned his house. Cornplanter, who had once gone as a young man to meet his father, recognized Abeel and offered apology. Cornplanter invited Abeel to go with him or return to his European family. When his father chose

3528-510: The hatchet," while the Americans sought their continued neutrality. In July 1777, the Seneca met with John Butler , a deputy superintendent in the British Indian Department at Irondequoit to discuss whether to abandon their neutrality. Although Cornplanter strongly opposed becoming involved, the Seneca eventually agreed to actively support the British against the Americans. Cornplanter honoured that decision. Because of

3600-486: The latter, Cornplanter had Seneca warriors accompany him in safety. A few months later Cornplanter participated in the large scale raid on the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River valleys that culminated in the inconclusive Battle of Klock's Field . He was relatively inactive for the remainder of the war. When the war ended in 1783, Cornplanter recognized the need to develop a positive diplomatic relationship with

3672-575: The list of "peripheral" Iroquoian languages. Tuscarora has four oral vowels, one nasal vowel, and one diphthong. The vowels can be either short or long, which makes a total of eight oral vowels , /i ɛ ɔ u iː ɛː ɔː uː/ , and two nasal vowels , /ə̃ ə̃ː/ . Nasal vowels are indicated with an ogonek , long vowels with either a following colon ⟨ : ⟩ or an interpunct ⟨ · ⟩ , and stressed vowels are marked with an acute accent ⟨ú⟩ . The pronunciation of unstressed short vowels varies between dialects, as shown in

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3744-711: The long shirt worn as part of the men's regalia, and so the name literally means "long shirt people." Tuscarora is recently extinct , the last fluent first language speaker having died in 2020. In the mid-1970s, 50 people spoke it on the Tuscarora Reservation ( Lewiston, New York ) and the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation (near Brantford, Ontario ). The Tuscarora School in Lewiston has striven to keep Tuscarora alive as

3816-422: The others. However, Lounsbury (1961:17) classed Tuscarora, along with Laurentian, Huron-Wyandot, and Cherokee as the "peripheral" Iroquoian languages—in distinction to the five "inner languages" of the Iroquois proper. Blair Rudes, who did extensive scholarship on Tuscarora and wrote a Tuscarora dictionary, concurred with Lounsbury, adding Nottoway and Susquehannock (which Lounsbury ignored in his comparisons) to

3888-515: The phonetic (automatic) rules listed below. Since, in certain cases, the sounds [ɡ] and [d] are realized, a more extended list of the stops would be [t] , [d] , [k] , [ɡ] , and [ʔ] . In the written system, however, only t, k, and ′ are used. /k/ is aspirated when it directly precedes another /k/ . The language has two or three fricatives: /s/ , /θ/ , and /h/ . /s/ and /θ/ are distinguished only in some dialects of Tuscarora. Both are pronounced [s] , but in some situations, /s/

3960-461: The religious leader Handsome Lake , strongly opposed the use of liquor, and unlike other Protestant groups, the goal of Quaker missionaries was to educate rather than convert. Cornplanter invited Quakers to the Cornplanter Tract to help the Seneca learn new skills such as animal husbandry , carpentry and smithing as they could no longer rely on hunting or the fur trade as a way of life. He also encouraged Seneca men to become involved in growing crops,

4032-457: The schools but did not completely break relations with the Quakers as he retained his respect for them. Cornplanter occasionally openly expressed his disdain for whites. Upon taking a short ride on the first steamboat to navigate the upper Allegheny River, Cornplanter, while generally impressed with the boat, quipped that "white men will do anything to avoid using their muscles." During the War of 1812 , Cornplanter did not play an active role in

4104-612: The status of the Seneca as "elder brothers" among the Iroquois, most of the Iroquois Confederacy followed suit. The Oneida and the Tuscarora , however, strongly influenced by the missionaries such as Samuel Kirkland , resolved to support the Americans instead. Cornplanter and Sayenqueraghta were named as war chiefs of the four nations that allied with the British: the Mohawk , Seneca , Onondaga and Cayuga . During

4176-419: The subsequent brutal winter. The seemingly miraculous arrival of the cicadas (specifically, Brood VII also known as the Onondaga brood) is commemorated by the Onondaga as though it were an intervention by the Creator to ensure their survival after such a traumatizing, catastrophic event. On November 11, 1794, the Onondaga Nation, along with the other Haudenosaunee nations, signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with

4248-473: The surname Cornplanter and continued to be prominent members of the Seneca community. Many members of the Abeel/Cornplanter family died as a result of the 1918 flu pandemic . Artist Jesse Cornplanter was his last known direct male descendant (1889–1957). In gratitude for his assistance to the state, the Pennsylvania government gave Cornplanter a grant of 1,500 acres (6.1 km ) in 1796 along

4320-604: The territory over to the United States. According to oral tradition, the Great Peacemaker approached the Onondaga and other tribes to found the Haudenosaunee . The tradition tells that at the time the Seneca nation debated joining the Haudenosaunee based on the Great Peacemaker's teachings, a solar eclipse took place. The most likely eclipse visible in the area was in 1142 AD. This oral tradition

4392-411: The verb, including person, number, and gender. Since all verbs must have at least a subject, the pronominal prefixes identify the subject, and if the verb is transitive , these prefixes also identify the object. For example: Tuscarora word: rà:weh Translation: He is talking. Breakdown: masculine + 'talk' + serial The rà is the masculine pronominal prefix, indicating that a male person

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4464-448: The very first prefixes in a verb. Prepronominal prefixes can indicate In addition, these can mark such distinctions as dualic, contrastive, partitive, and iterative. According to Marianne Mithun Williams , it is possible to find some semantic similarities from the functions of prepronominal prefixes, but not such that each morpheme is completely explained in this way. As it sounds, pronominal prefixes identify pronouns with regards to

4536-495: The western bank of the Allegheny River about three miles (5 km) below the southern boundary of New York state, allotting it to him and his heirs "forever". By 1798, 400 Seneca lived on the land, which was called the Cornplanter Tract or Cornplanter Grant. In 1821 Warren County, Pennsylvania tried to force Cornplanter to pay taxes for his land, which he protested on the basis that the land had been "granted" to him by

4608-400: Was a gunsmith and was gladly welcomed into the Iroquois community to repair their guns. Cornplanter was raised by his mother among the Seneca. His Seneca name, Gaiänt'wakê (often spelled Gyantwachia), means "the planter," and another variation, Kaintwakon , means "by what one plants." As the Seneca and other Iroquois nations had a matrilineal system of kinship, Cornplanter was considered

4680-399: Was a model man from nature's mould. Truth, temperance, justice and humanity, never had a nobler incarnation or more earnest and consistent advocate then he. As we loved him personally, and revere the nobel, manly character he bore, we erect this tribute to his memory, that those who live after us may know and imitate his virtues. In 1965, the new federal Kinzua Dam at Warren, Pennsylvania

4752-675: Was born about 1752 at Canawaugus (now in the Town of Caledonia ) on the Genesee River in present-day New York State . He was the son of a Seneca woman, Gah-hon-no-neh (She Who Goes to the River), and a Dutch trader, Johannes "John" Abeel II. The Dutch had settled the Hudson River Valley several generations earlier, and Cornplanter's father, an Albany fur trader, was part of an established family. The Abeel family name

4824-706: Was completed, creating the Allegheny Reservoir for flood control, and permanently flooding all but a small corner of the Cornplanter Tract. Cornplanter's grave was moved with the Cornplanter Monument, to higher ground, at the Riverview-Corydon Cemetery, located in Elk Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania . "The grounds are located west of the north central Pennsylvania town of Bradford just about 100 yards from

4896-600: Was followed by widespread looting and burning throughout the Wyoming Valley but non-combatants were not harmed. In November 1778, Cornplanter led the Seneca at the Cherry Valley Massacre . During this raid many non-combatants were killed or taken captive. In 1779, George Washington ordered Major General John Sullivan to invade Iroquois territory and destroy their villages. Cornplanter, along with Joseph Brant , Sayenqueraghta, and Butler, fought

4968-537: Was impressed enough to send his son Henry to the Quaker school the following year. This sparked a continuing relationship between Cornplanter and the Quaker community. Henry Abeel (spelled Henry Abeele in federal documents) later served as an interpreter at the Treaty of Canandaigua negotiations in 1794. Cornplanter's descendants used the last name Abeel during his lifetime. By the 20th century they had generally begun using

5040-454: Was sometimes Gaelicized to O'Bail and O'Beale. John Abeel II (1722–1794) was connected to the Schuyler family , leaders in business and politics. The grandfather after whom Cornplanter was named, Johannes Abeel I (1667–1711), was a trader and merchant who built up links with the indigenous people along his trade routes, and who served as the second mayor of Albany . The younger John Abeel

5112-492: Was the uncle of the influential sachem Chainbreaker , and the nephew of Guyasuta , a leader of the western Seneca during Pontiac's War . Cornplanter married twice and had seven children. The names of six of the seven are known. One of Cornplanter's sons had an intellectual disability and is only referred to as "The Idiot" in primary sources. While in Philadelphia in 1790, Cornplanter had met with Quaker leaders. He

5184-483: Was to be the chief arbitrator of the Lords of the Confederacy. The Onondaga maintained the largest number chieftainship titles as well as the largest number of clans among the Iroquois. Handsome Lake , the Seneca half-brother of Cornplanter and author of his eponymous Code, died at Onondaga. The Onondaga practice the sprinkling of ashes when juggling the treatment of the sick. They also do a public confession of sins upon

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