2nd Annual Seneca Caneadea Field Day
The second annual Seneca Caneadea Field Day, honoring the Seneca Nation on their ancestral lands with a day of cultural exhibits, traditional sport and dance demonstrations, and native craft and food vendors took place Saturday, June 22nd in Houghton, NY!
Seneca Nation Members: Caneadea Legacy
After the Caneadea Reservation ceased, a member of the Seneca Nation, Copperhead, refused to move to another reservation. He claimed he was never paid for his land. Copperhead grew to be a local legend, living off charity and often sharing food and stories with local children who visited him. He is known as the last member of the Seneca Nation to live in Caneadea, and claimed to be over 120 years old at his death, March 23, 1864.
On Houghton University’s campus in front of Chamberlain Hall, there is “the Boulder” to commemorate Copperhead. The rock was donated in 1914 by Leonard Houghton, son of the University’s founder, Willard J. Houghton.
Shongo, one of the chiefs of the Caneadea Reservation, was also a reluctant participant in its elimination. After he moved to the Buffalo Creek Reservation, legend has it he walked more than 50 miles back to Caneadea numerous times. Shongo Valley Road and Shongo Creek on the east side of Caneadea township bear his name today.
Although the Seneca Nation has long since left Caneadea, their presence lingers. Artifacts in the form of arrowheads and stone tools of Seneca and pre-Seneca cultures have occasionally turned up when farm fields are plowed.
A MOVING STRUCTURE: SENECA COUNCIL HOUSE
A square Council House composed of logs was a prominent ceremonial building in the Seneca village in the Caneadea Reservation. It is commonly understood to have been built with the help of British troops from Fort Niagara sometime in the latter half of the 1700s, although historians can’t be certain of the exact date. Over the years, it hosted numerous great Seneca speakers.
In 1782, a soldier who fought the British and their Haudenosaunee allies during the Revolutionary War, Moses Van Campen, was captured by the Senecas.
In 1908, a commemorative boulder for Van Campen, which also serves as a marker for the general location of the former Seneca village and the Council House.The monument can be found on the west side of Council House Road on the Estabrook farm in the Town of Caneadea.
After the reservation was sold, the white settler family of Joel Seaton made some adjustments to the house and used it as their home. Later, the structure was used as a barn and eventually fell into disrepair.
Around 1871, businessman and philanthropist, William Pryor Letchworth, purchased what remained of the house. It was carefully labeled, disassembled, and moved by boat via the Genesee Valley Canal to Letchworth’s Glen Iris estate, which later became a centerpoint of Letchworth State Park. The Council House was reconstructed as close as possible to how it appeared when used by the Senecas. On Oct. 1, 1872, Letchworth invited the descendants of the Haudenosaunee leaders for a “Last” Council Fire on the Genesee during the Last Indian Council on the Genesee.
The Council House currently resides in Letchworth State Park on a hill above the Glen Iris Inn and the William Pryor Letchworth Museum. It is next to the grave of Mary Jemison, the famous “white woman of the Genesee,” who was captured as a child by Shawnee and French soldiers, and adopted by the Seneca and chose to live her life as a member of their nation.
