Gaiänt'wakê, (c. 1740–1836) generally known as Cornplanter, was a Seneca chief. He was the son of a Native American mother and a Dutch father and also carried the name John O'Bail (sometimes spelled Abeel after his fur trader father). He was born at Canawagus (now in the Town of Caledonia) on the Genesee River in present-day New York State around 1740.
During the American Revolution he wanted to remain neutral, but was accused by Mohawk chief Joseph Brant of cowardice and persuaded to join the British side, along with most of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was second in command to Brant at the Battle of Wyoming Valley in 1778 (which came to be known as the Wyoming Valley Massacre, because of the scalping of women and children). He also participated in a campaign in the Cherry Valley in 1780, which later was called the Cherry Valley Massacre for the same reason. During this campaign his men burned his father's house and nearly killed his father. Cornplanter recognized him, and offered apology, inviting him to return with the Senecas or to go back to his white family. His father chose the latter. The victories of the Iroquois prompted the Continental Congress to commission John Sullivan to invade their territory to neutralize the threat. After a brief battle and decisive defeat of the Iroquois and accompanying British troops at Newtown, Sullivan methodically destroyed Iroquois homes and farms in the summer and fall of 1779 throughout what is now upstate New York.
After the great defeat of the Iroquis during the Sullivan Expedition and the loss of the entire war by the British, Cornplanter decided to work for peace and became a negotiator in disputes between the new Americans and the natives. He was one of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784).
He studied the ways of the white men and decided that Native Americans had to settle down, plant crops and live peacefully, hence his name, Cornplanter.
During the Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana right after the Revolution, Cornplanter was able to keep the Senecas neutral and tried to negotiate with the Shawnees on behalf of the US. In gratitude for his assistance, Cornplanter was given a grant of land by Pennsylvania along the western bank of the Allegheny River to him and his heirs "forever."
He died of old age on his grant in 1836. In 1965, the new Kinzua Dam at Warren, Pennsylvania permanently flooded this land grant. His grave on the grant was moved to higher ground.
Moving his grave, going against his heirs' grant "forever", figures in the song, "As Long As The Grass Shall Grow", by Johnny Cash.
Cornplanter was half brother to Handsome Lake and uncle to Governor Blacksnake.
Cornplanter State Forest in Forest County, Pennsylvania is named for him.
External links
See http://www.warrennet.com/Kinzua/link1.html for a picture of his grave and monument.
See http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_008700_cornplanter.htm Encyclopedia of North American Indians which gives 18 Feb 1836 as his date of death.