Carrie Cornplanter (1887–1918) was a Native American artist of the

Seneca tribe The Seneca () ( see, Onödowáʼga:, "Great Hill People") are a group of Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Their nation was the farthest to the west w ...

. Little is recorded of Cornplanter's life save that she was the elder sister of

Jesse Cornplanter Jesse J. Cornplanter (September 16, 1889 – March 18, 1957) was an actor, artist, author, craftsman, Seneca Faithkeeper and World War I decorated veteran. The last male descendant of Cornplanter, an important 18th-century Haudenosaunee lea ...

, had a sister named Anna, and had children of her own, and that her native name was "dédon". The three were descendants of Chief

Cornplanter John Abeel III (born between 1732 and 1746–February 18, 1836), known as Gaiänt'wakê (''Gyantwachia'' – "the planter") or Kaiiontwa'kon (''Kaintwakon'' – "By What One Plants") in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplante ...

and the daughters of

Edward Cornplanter Edward Cornplanter or So-son-do-wa (1856–1918) was a chief of the Seneca people of the Iroquois Nation (Haudenosaunee) and a leading exponent of the Code of Handsome Lake (''Gai'wiio,'' also known as the Longhouse Religion). Cornplanter, the so ...

. Carrie's paintings are among the earliest known by an American Indian woman to depict traditional aspects of native life. Most were created during the last decade of the 19th century or the first decade of the 20th, and she was thus at a relatively young age when she made the paintings. One such work, ''Indian Squaws Pounding Corn'', is owned by the

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

. Dating to around 1900, it was donated to the museum in 1922 by Joseph W. Keppler, a friend of the principal benefactor of the museum

George Gustav Heye George Gustav Heye (1874 – January 20, 1957) was an American collector of Native American artifacts in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in North America. He founded the Museum of the American Indian, and his collection became the core of ...

. Keppler likely purchased the piece directly from the artist or from a member of her family. Carrie died in the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

., page 210 Her sister Anna and two of Carrie's daughters were the only members of the family other than Jesse to survive; the children were left destitute by the loss of their mother and were placed in Jesse's care when he returned home from World War I in Europe.''Bulletin of the New York State Museum, 1920''. Section:
Death of Chief Edward Cornplanter
" pages 104 and 105.

References

External links

Indian Squaws Pounding Corn
by Carrie Cornplanter, at the

part 1-VOL XIII and Indian Cornhusk Dance
by Carrie Cornplanter at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Artwork by brother

on back. 1887 births 1918 deaths 19th-century indigenous painters of the Americas 20th-century indigenous painters of the Americas 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists Seneca people Schuyler family American people of Dutch descent Native American painters Native American women artists Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in New York (state) {{US-painter-1880s-stub

See also

References

External links