THUS IS CORNPLANTER DESCRIBED in his old age by a writer of the 1830s. "Cornplanter" (literally from the Seneca "Kiiontwogke", meaning "what one plants") earned fame in his youth as a valiant warrior - taking part in the infamous destruction of Gen. Braddock's army in 1755 in which Colonel George Washington first gained notoriety. Later he was known as a wise as well as a powerful chief and one of the last great spokesmen for his people.
In his youth, the Seneca were still basking in the reflected glory of the great Iroquois half-century of conquest (1641 - 1701). Through brutal warfare and shrewd diplomacy they controlled a vast area stretching from the coast of Maine to the Mississippi and from north of Lake Superior to Northern Alabama. But their power was fast waning and by the end of his life, the barriers which had held back the flood were swept away and their land was reduced to scattered islands in a sea of white civilization.