Tah-won-ne-ahs or Governor Blacksnake
December 26, 2023 | Repost from Erie Canal Museum FB
Today our #CanalConnection is with Tah-won-ne-ahs or Governor Blacksnake. Blacksnake was a member of the Seneca Nation, born in the mid-1700s near Seneca Lake. During the American Revolution he fought alongside the British and was part of Haudenosaunee diplomatic missions that met with George Washington and the Continental Congress to attempt to secure peace as the war concluded. Following the war he worked alongside his uncle Cornplanter and other Senecas to negotiate with federal officials and land speculators as they attempted to further dispossess the Haudenosaunee nations of their homelands. Blacksnake remained an influential member of the Seneca for his entire life, which lasted well over 100 years.
Towards the end of his life in the late 1850s, Blacksnake became directly enmeshed in the story of the New York State Canal System when land speculators attempted to occupy large parts of the Reservation while state engineers tried to condemn parts of the Oil Spring Reservation for use as a reservoir for the Genesee Valley Canal. In August 1858, Blacksnake testified in court that the territory was meant to be included in the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree and that Joseph Ellicott, agent for the Holland Land Company and future Canal Commissioner, had given him a map that indicated the Oil Spring Reservation was Seneca land. In 1861 the NYS Court of Appeals found in favor of the Seneca in large part due to Blacksnake’s testimony, thus retaining much of the Reservation’s land and establishing a precedent for future land claims regarding the Oil Spring Reservation. Nonetheless, Canal engineers went forward with the construction of Cuba Lake, flooding or otherwise appropriating approximately 51 acres of the Reservation.
Earlier this week, they offered another opportunity to learn more about the Haudenosaunee and connection to the Canal with Dr. Jolene Rickard’s presentation on the history of beadwork.
Check out their Deeper Dive Lecture Series schedule HERE.
