Tah-won-ne-ahs or Thaonawyuthe (born between 1737 and 1760, died December 26, 1859), known in English as either Chainbreaker to his own people or Governor Blacksnake to the European settlers, was a Seneca war chief and

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern ...

. Along with other

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 ...

war chiefs (most notably Mohawk leader

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps th ...

), he led warriors to fight on the side of the British 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 ...

from 1777 to 1783. He was prominent for his role at the Battle of Oriskany, in which the

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

and allied forces ambushed a force of Patriots. After the war, he supported his maternal uncle, Handsome Lake, as a prominent religious leader. Chainbreaker allied with the United States in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

and later encouraged some accommodation to European-American settlers, allowing missionaries and teachers on the Seneca reservation. Importantly, he also led a successful postwar struggle in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in the 1850s after white men illegally bought Seneca land. He helped gain a New York State Appeals Court ruling in 1861 that restored the Oil Springs Reservation to the Seneca.

Early life

Chainbreaker was born near Seneca Lake in

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 in ...

in the Seneca/

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...

village of '' Kendaia'' (Apple Town). His mother was a Seneca woman of the Wolf clan and his father was known as ''De-ne-oh-ah-te'' or "The Light". In the

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

kinship system of the Iroquois nations, a child is born into his or her mother's clan and gains social status from her family. The maternal uncles were very influential in the child's life, especially the oldest brother of the mother. He was raised in

Canawaugus Canawaugus (or Conawagus, or Ca-noh-wa-gas, or Conewaugus) () was a Seneca Indian village. The village was located on the west side of the Genesee River, "about a mile above the ford", on the eastern edge of the Town of Caledonia. It was nearly op ...

, a Seneca village known as ''Ga:non'wagês'' (in the

Seneca language Seneca (; in Seneca, or ) is the language of the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League; it is an Iroquoian language, spoken at the time of contact in the western portion of New York. While the name ''Seneca'', attested as ...

), on the east side of the

Genesee River The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides ...

, a site that has since been absorbed into the village of Avon, Livingston County, New York. The war 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

Handsome Lake were his maternal uncles and also lived at ''Ga:non'wagês''. The Wolf Clan's traditional function for males of the Seneca was to serve as war chiefs. His birth date has been given variously from circa 1760 to as early as 1737 (as is claimed on his gravestone, which was erected in 1930; the gravestone also erroneously states that he supported the Continental Army during the Revolution). A 1737 birthdate would have made him 121 or 122 years old at the time of death; some historians do not believe this is likely, as only one other person,

Jeanne Calment Jeanne Louise Calment (; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian and the oldest human whose age is documented, with a lifespan of 122 years and 164 days. Her longevity attracted media attention and medical studies of ...

, has been documented to have lived more than 120 years. Chainbreaker was known to have lived an exceptionally long life, at least reaching the age of 100. He likely became recognized as a war chief for actions taken as a young adult. According to the historian Draper, Chainbreaker said he was two years old at the time of William Johnson's defeat of the French on Lake George in 1755, and 22 at the time of the 1775

Battle of Bunker Hill The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in ...

. His death on December 26, 1859, was well documented. In his youth, Chainbreaker accompanied his uncle

"on special missions to see General George Washington as well as to members of the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

". After the Revolutionary War, in 1788 Chainbreaker moved to the large area of land in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

granted to his uncle Cornplanter for his service by the state legislature, after his home village (Canawaugus) was sold to the United States in the

Phelps and Gorham Purchase The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of of land in what is now western New York State from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 ( £300,000), to be paid in three annual installments, and the pre-emptive right to the ...

of Seneca lands. Converted to his uncle Handsome Lake's religion, Chainbreaker became an active promoter of traditional ways. In 1803, he moved with Handsome Lake to nearby

Coldspring Cold Spring, Cold Springs, Coldspring, or Coldsprings may refer to: Places Canada * Cold Springs, Manitoulin District, Ontario * Cold Springs, Northumberland County, Ontario * Coldspring House, British Columbia, Canada (also known as Coldspring ...

after a dispute with Cornplanter. While Chainbreaker continued to advocate "temperance, morality, and adherence to the overall principles of Handsome Lake," he rejected his uncle's "proscription against Indian participation in the 'white man's wars". By the 1840s Chainbreaker had formulated his own version of his uncle's traditional ways. He generally urged finding a path of compromise. He permitted missionaries and Western schooling on the Reservation and encouraged his followers to work toward social harmony and to take advantage of schooling.

Involvement in regional warfare

In 1777 Chainbreaker took part in the siege of

Fort Stanwix Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was bui ...

and the Battle of Oriskany in British General St. Leger's part of the

Saratoga campaign The Saratoga campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British ...

. In 1778 he participated in the

Battle of Wyoming The Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot militiamen and a mixed force of Loyalist (American Revolution) , Loyalist ...

under the command of Colonel John Butler. In 1779 he attempted to defend Seneca settlements against the raid of Colonel Daniel Brodhead. Blacksnake carried messages for the British on a trail that passed through today's Napoli, New York. After his work on behalf of the British in the Revolutionary War, Chainbreaker became reconciled to the fact that United States had established independence and had forced the Seneca and other Iroquois nations from most of their lands. He fought on the American side in the

, and participated in the

Battle of Fort George The Battle of Fort George was a battle fought during the War of 1812, in which the Americans defeated a British force and captured the Fort George in Upper Canada. The troops of the United States Army and vessels of the United States Navy c ...

Struggle for Oil Spring Reservation

Governor Blacksnake "helped save the Oil Spring Reserve" for the Seneca. His victory in this New York State court case established a precedent for the

land claim A land claim is defined as "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include aboriginal land claims, ...

settled in June 2005 over Cuba Lake. After the war, American colonists Stanley Clark, Benjamin Chamberlain, and William Gallagher bought lands adjacent to the Seneca Oil Spring Reservation. Clark surveyed Reservation lands and claimed the area for the three men, granting one-quarter of the reservation to

Horatio Seymour Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He served as Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1868 United States presidential ele ...

, later elected as governor of New York. In the 1850s, Clark conveyed another quarter to Philonius Pattison. In response to these actions, the Seneca filed a legal challenge that reached the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

, ''

Seneca Nation of Indians v. Philonus Pattison 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 Extra ...

''. They protested against the Seymour, Gallagher, Chamberlain, and Clark claims to the northeast quarter of Oil Spring. Governor Blacksnake, who had attended the negotiations of 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 ...

that established the reservation, testified that he and Joseph Ellicott had surveyed the Oil Spring lands and that the omission of a full legal description of the lands from the treaty was a mistake. He produced a map copied by the

Holland Land Company The Holland Land Company was an unincorporated syndicate of thirteen Dutch investors from Amsterdam who in 1792 and 1793 purchased the western two-thirds of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, an area that afterward was known as the Holland Purchase ...

, in which the Oil Spring Reservation was marked similarly to other Seneca lands. In 1861, the Court found for the Seneca Nation. Pattison, Chamberlain, Clark, Gallagher, and Seymour were forced to leave the reservation. While later incursions by the New York State Board of Canal Commissioners and tourist activities have taken additional land from the Reservation, Governor Blacksnake's actions helped preserve some of Oil Spring as Seneca land.

Later life

In later life, Chainbreaker's political influence waned, as younger Seneca men assumed control. But he continued to participate in the condolence ceremony into his nineties. Chainbreaker died on the

Allegany Reservation Allegany Reservation (Uhì·yaʼRudes, B. ''Tuscarora English Dictionary'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999 in Tuscarora) is a Seneca Nation of Indians reservation in Cattaraugus County, New York, USA. In the 2000 census, 58 percent of ...

Cattaraugus County, New York Cattaraugus County (locally known as Catt County) is a county in Western New York, with one side bordering Pennsylvania. As of the United States 2020 census, the population was 77,042. The county seat is Little Valley. The county was created ...

in late December 1859. He is remembered by the Seneca Nation as "a man of rare intellectual and moral power."

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Tenh-Wen-Nyos, Governor Blacksnake at Find-a-Grave

Governor Blacksnake Manuscript Page

Poem: Governor Blacksnake Speaks
* , contains information on Governor Blacksnake and the Senecas of the Cornplanter Grant * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blacksnake, Governor Seneca people Native Americans in the American Revolution Native American leaders Native American people of the Indian Wars Native Americans in the War of 1812 Native American writers People from Cattaraugus County, New York 18th-century births 1859 deaths Year of birth uncertain Native American people from New York (state)