Edward Cornplanter - Seneca Myths and Folk Tales

Edward Cornplanter or So-son-do-wa (1856–1918) was a chief of the

Seneca people 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 ...

of 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 ...

Nation (Haudenosaunee) and a leading exponent of the Code of Handsome Lake (''Gai'wiio,'' also known as the Longhouse Religion). Cornplanter, the son of Moses and Sarah (Phillips) Cornplanter, was born in November 1856 on the Seneca

Cattaraugus Reservation Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of Indians, formerly part of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. I ...

. He was the great-great-grandson 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 ...

, who led the tribe during 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 ...

. His Seneca name ''So-son-do-wa'' means "Deep Night." In 1882, he married Nancy Jack. They had nine children, only three of whom would survive to adulthood: Jesse Cornplanter (1889–1957), who became renowned as an artist and author;

Carrie Cornplanter Carrie Cornplanter (1887–1918) was a Native American artist of the Seneca tribe. Little is recorded of Cornplanter's life save that she was the elder sister of Jesse Cornplanter, had a sister named Anna, and had children of her own, and that he ...

(1887–1918), whose childhood artwork would also find exposure; and Anna Cornplanter (1895–1960), about whom very little is known. Edward experienced infirmity beginning in 1915; he was initially expected to recover (which led to Jesse being free to enlist and fight

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

) but never did, dying while Jesse was overseas in 1918. Shortly thereafter, the

Spanish 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 ...

decimated the family, killing Nancy, Carrie and all but Anna, Jesse, and two of Carrie's young children. Cornplanter was one of six Iroquois authorized as "holders of the Gai'wiio"; he regularly traveled among the Iroquois reservations to pass on the teachings. In 1903 he became concerned that oral transmission of the Gai'wiio` would not keep it from being lost. He wrote it down from memory and gave the material to the archives of New York State for preservation. His son Jesse Cornplanter illustrated this manuscript. In addition to transcribing ''The Code of Handsome Lake'', Cornplanter assisted the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol ...

in compiling materials about Native American life in the state. He provided information as to the Iroquois cultivation and use of "maize and other plant foods and many ... myths and tales." Cornplanter died on June 10, 1918, at the Cattaraugus Reservation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornplanter, Edward 1856 births 1918 deaths Seneca people Schuyler family American people of Dutch descent Native American people from New York (state)