Little Beard or Si-gwa-ah-doh-gwih ("Spear Hanging Down") (died 1806), was a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

chief who participated in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

on the side of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. After the war, he became reconciled with the outcome and continued to reside in New York. His village,

Little Beard's Town Little Beard's Town, also known as Chenussio (in Seneca) and "Genesee Castle", was a powerful Seneca town in the Genesee River Valley near modern Leicester in Livingston County, New York, where Cuylerville stands today. It surrounded the area t ...

was located near two other Seneca villages in modern Leicester in Livingston County, New York, and consisted of about 130 houses. Little Beard participated in the

Cherry Valley massacre The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Iroquois forces on a fort and the town of Cherry Valley in central New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It has been described as one of the most horrific ...

of 1778, and presided over the torture and death of Boyd and Parker, captured scouts of the

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...

of 1779. Subsequently, Little Beard's Town was destroyed by the American forces.

Mary Jemison Mary Jemison (''Deh-he-wä-nis'') (1743 – September 19, 1833) was a Scots-Irish colonial frontierswoman in Pennsylvania and New York, who became known as the "White Woman of the Genesee." As a young girl she was captured and adopted into a Se ...

, then a resident of the village, fled with the natives to more secure villages. The modern town of Cuylerville was built at the spot. Little Beard was one of the Seneca chiefs signing the

Treaty of Canandaigua The Treaty of Canandaigua (or Konondaigua, as spelled in the treaty itself) also known as the Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty, is a treaty signed after the American Revolutionary War between the Iroquois#Government, Grand Council of the Si ...

of 1794 that established some reservations for the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

. He was also a signatory to the

Treaty of Big Tree The Treaty of Big Tree was a formal treaty signed in 1797 between the Seneca Nation and the United States, in which the Seneca relinquished their rights to nearly all of their traditional homeland in New York State—nearly 3.5 million acres. In ...

in 1797 that opened up

Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY i ...

for settlement. He died as the result of injuries received during a brawl at a tavern in 1806.

References

*"A History of the Treaty of Big Tree: and an Account of the Celebration...", by Livingston County Historical Society, O. Burnell Print, 1897

External links

Canandaigua Treaty of 1794
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Beard 18th-century births 1806 deaths Native American leaders Native Americans in the American Revolution Seneca people People from Leicester, New York