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The Ohi:yo’ – Part 2

By Charlie “Catman” Redeye

The Seneca of the Ohi:yo’

The Seneca Nation are the keepers of the Western Door of the Six Nations Confederacy.

We referred to this territory as a big longhouse, with the Mohawk Nation being the Keepers of the Eastern Door and the fire at Onondaga keeping the house together.

The Seneca ruled the waterways in and out of the Western territories, which meant we controlled the trade routes.

We ruled from Lake Huron to the North, South to the Carolina’s and from the Atlantic to the East and as far west to the river Mississippi.

To be a Seneca was to be a member of the most respected, most dominate, most courted and most feared Indian Nation on Earth!

Warriors of the Ohi:yo’

Guyasuta was the Seneca leader of the Western Door, where every Nation on Earth had to “knock” first before entering. This Seneca War Chief was truly the Julius Caesar of the Seneca Empire.

In October of 1770, Virginian and British General George Washington met Guyasuta at his hunting camp. Guyasuta befriended the general and fed his army a buffalo. At that time there were the two most powerful men in North America. Washington referred to his Seneca friend as “The Hunter”.

The meeting of these two formidable men along the banks of the Ohi:yo’ for three days poured the foundation for America.

We cannot but wonder what the subject of conversation of Washington and Guyasuta was said around that Council fire that night, but I would have loved to be a fly on that buffalo!

“All civilzations can be traced back to a river!”

Guyasuta, whose name means “Branch over the River” had a sister who was a very prominent Indian gal from the Genesee whose name was “Gah-Ho-No-Neh” which means “She Goes to the River”! And she was the mother to a man named Cornplanter.
Cornplanter of the Ohi:yo

Seneca Chief Cornplanter was the Chief Warrior of the Allegany Seneca’s. He was the nephew of War Chief Guyasuta.

Although Cornplanter was a half breed, he never thought himself anything but an Indian. His devotion was to the Great Spirit and his people. He lived a very long life and wore deer skin moccasins until the day he died. He refused to speak or read English!

He figured dramatically and controversially into the birth of a Nation.

And it attended the surrender of an ages old civilization. It’s not too much to say that the course of history would have been much, much different had not this warrior been born to an Indian woman in Cattaraugus 260 years ago!
Of course he was never to know how very large a role he played in the emergence of the United States of America.

Cornplanter called the Allegany “My River!”

In the spring of 1789, Cornplanter, his wife and two sons and five handpicked Seneca warriors from all the villages set down the Allegany on a voyage to fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) to make peace with the “Thirteen Fires” (Congress) and the “Great White Father” George Washington.

The five warriors were:
Kag-Ga-Do-Wa (Tonawanda)
Jo-Nah-Hoh (Cattaraugus)
To-Dom-Jo-Wah “Split Word” (Upper Town)
Blacksnake (Allegany)
New Arrow (Allegany)

This journey down the Allegany River, across Pennsylvania to Carlisle, Philadelphia and finally to New York City changed the course of history.

And just when we thought we found “honest” white men, they dropped the Treaty of Paris and the Kinzua Dam upon us.

Such is the story of deceit and dishonor. The white man’s government forgot their promises and treaties as soon as they made them!

But the Indian never forgot a promise, a treaty, a kindness or an injury. The strongest love of his heart was the love of his hands that he considered his own, as a gift from the Great Spirit! And his fiercest passion was his love for revenge!

Part 3 – Revenge

Quote: “War is war and death is death! A fight is a tough business! And you know what we bring… Cornplanter!”