Cornplanter

Who was Cornplanter?

John Abeel, Jr., known as Gaiänt'wakê or Kaiiontwa'kon in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplanter, was a Seneca war chief and diplomat. As a war chief, Cornplanter fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. In both wars, the Seneca and three other Iroquois nations were allied with the British. After the war Cornplanter led negotiations with the United States and was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. He helped gain Iroquois neutrality during the Northwest Indian War.

In the postwar years, he worked to learn more about European-American ways and invited Quakers to establish schools in Seneca territory. Disillusioned by poor treatment of his people by the Americans, he had the schools closed and renewed some Seneca ways. 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 the Cornplanter Tract. It was flooded in 1965 by the Kinzua Dam, and most remaining Seneca moved to Allegany Reservation.