Cornplanter, Jesse J., 1889-1957

Jesse J. Cornplanter

by Charles E. Bartlett

Had he lived to September 16, Jesse J. Cornplanter would have been 68 years old. Death came to the battle-scarred warrior on March 18, 1957. And, as he would have liked, the final moment found him with his moccasins on, defiant to the last of the ill health that had plagued him these last few years.

He was born on Cattaraugus reservation, the son of a distinguished father, Edward Cornplanter. Sosondowah early began teaching his son Jesse the rituals and background of the Longhouse people. The father, lifelong Faithkeeper and authoritative ritualist, found in the son an eager and consecrated pupil. Though all his life Jesse was to travel widely, make many contacts with people of other faiths and explore many of the world's religions, always he was to come back to the teachings of his father and his own people. In due time Jesse himself became a Faithkeeper at Cattaraugus. The ritual name he received was taken from him by a lifelong friend, Chief Solon Jones, on the day of the funeral. According to custom the name must be returned to the clan until a new Faithkeeper is named.

When Chief Corbett Sundown rose from the chief's bench at Tonawanda and began the long Seneca funeral oration in the midst of the crowded longhouse, everyone who was privileged to have known Jesse Cornplanter knew that his spirit exulted in the sonorous phrases that sent it on the ten-day journey to the land of eternal rest. So, too, would he have been proud of the military groups that came to pay him final tribute. He always had a quiet and joyous pride in his military service, and comrades of whatever war or branch of service came first in his consideration. Jesse's war service lasted from June 4, 1917 when he enlisted, to April 19, 1919 when he was honorably discharged. He served as private and corporal in machine gun Company C, 147th Infantry, of the justly famous 37th (Buckeye) Division. Wounded, gassed, he also suffered a series of spiritual blows when his father, mother, and all but one of his sisters died when he was overseas. The physical scars remained to the end, and only with difficulty did he regain a normal outlook on.life.

As early as 1906 he had accompanied his father into the Hiawatha pageant, and as a member of the cast he traveled for many months. There followed a trip to Europe and England with his father, in Indian show. Over six feet tall, of commanding appearance, he became famous and popular not only in the longhouses of the Iroquois, but before white audiences. An unusually fine singing voice added to the authenticity of his songs.

True to the patterns of his race, he was fond of young people and took great pains to Explain and answer their questions. "I am never afraid of saying 'I don't know' in answer to questions. I have to be careful. I am a Cornplanter, and what I say to them they repeat. It would not be seemly for a Cornplanter to give false information."

As an informant on Seneca customs he was much sought after. Fenton, Hewitt, Deardorf, Speck, Parker, and many others came to his Tonawanda home to question, to argue and to learn. Great singers and authorities of his own race often came to hear his versions of songs and ritual. Yet ironically, he recently lamented that a correspondence school refused him an application because his formal education stopped at the third grade.

Jesse Cornplanter possessed a many-faceted personality. Faithkeeper, ritualist, athlete, actor, artist, author, soldier, skilled craftsman, - a dozen people might give as many versions of his impact on them.

As I write there hangs over my desk a Seneca cloth bag with the tools of the singer's trade. A red water drum which he cut down from a small keg is inscribed on the bottom "From Jess Cornplanter the Seneca". Also made by him, several delicately carved and balanced drum beaters; half a dozen horn rattles patiently whittled and assembled, the shape of the handles always the same, his trademark. At my side is a Pamphlet of his drawings labeled "the Seneca boy artist”. On the shelf are numerous New York State museum bulletins containing his drawings of many phases of Seneca life. "The Code of Handsome Lake" or Gaiwiio, the work of Edward Cornplanter, is enhanced by many drawings by Jesse, the son. Alongside is a copy of "Legends of the Longhouse," Jesse's own book, written and illustrated in 1938.

To those who knew him there was small cause for wonder on that raw March day as to why so many crowded his reservation home for the final ceremonies. Chiefs and sachems, visiting dignitaries from Canadian and New York reservations, anthropologists, students of Indian lore, red men and white, - each owed a debt of gratitude to this man, last of the Cornplanters. Six Seneca friends bore his casket from the home to the longhouse: Dean Gardner, Patty Ground, Dwight Blackchief, John Jimerson, Sam George, and Roger Sundown.

"We are assembled in this longhouse for what God has decreed to be". Thus it begins, the long funeral oration in Seneca lasting 45 minutes. "Most of you people come here to give your respects to one who has gone on. Most are friends and relatives. Thus it is decreed, and we can go no farther along the earthly path. From here his spirit must go on alone. Farewell". Thus it ends, with an invitation to all present to look fina lly upon the face of the one departed. Remaining to mourn for the ten days appointed by Seneca custom, is the wife Elsina, married on that long ago day of October 29, 1929; a sister, Mrs. Anna Lyons of Cattaraugus, and a daughter.

Remaining too, carefully wrapped, are the medals of the warrior. Each eloquently speaks of past glories, of a man who carried on the Cornplanter tradition, even in a white man's war. The Purple Heart, Disabled Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Medal of Conspicuous Service; medals commemorating Ypres-Lys, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Verdun; French medals Republique Francais and Medalie Commemorative. There are other memorabilia of Hayonhwonhish, the Seneca. A prolific writer, dozens of letters remain. Many of them written on the spur of the moment emphasize the stalwart, challenging character of the man. His books and correspondence, yet to be catalogued, reveal the probing, inquisitive mind. Over the years recordings have been made, notably by Fenton and Parker, that will continue to pay tribute to this Seneca ritualist at the peak of his art. Since 1954, Jesse Cornplanter, with the writer had been recording the songs had committed to memory during his lifetime as a longhouse singer. Despite continued ill health he had deposited on tape nearly five hours of material. "This is for my people" he said. "I want it down so that those who wish may learn the old ways and keep them alive. Most (of this) I learned from, my father". "Who knows," Jesse reflected, "this work we are doing, may be my monument."

Jesse Cornplanter, whose Seneca name was Hayonhwonhish, was born September 16, 1889 on the Cattaraugus Reservation. His father was Edward Cornplanter (Seneca name Sosondowah), a Faithkeeper of the Longhouse religion.

At an early age Jesse took an interest in drawing. Arthur C. Parker, an ethnologist, met him and asked him to make drawings of Seneca life for Parker to use as part of his ethnological studies of the Seneca. It is these drawings which make up the bulk of this collection.

In 1917, Jesse enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Europe during World War I. He was part of Company G, 147th Infantry, 37th Division. He was wounded during the war and received the Purple Heart among other military honors. He was honorably discharged in 1919.

Jesse was well known as an informant for researchers working with the Iroquois, including Arthur C. Parker, William Fenton and Charles E. Bartlett. When he became a Faithkeeper himself, he worked with Fenton and Parker to record the rituals and songs connected with his duties to insure their preservation for subsequent generations.

Two of his own books documenting Iroquois life were published. Iroquois Indian Games and Dances is a collection of his drawings. Legends of the Longhouse records many Iroquois traditional stories. In addition, he illustrated The Code of Handsome Lake, a book produced by his father and Arthur C. Parker.

In addition to his other creative activities, Jesse was noted as a fine craftsman. He died March 3, 1957. He gave his personal papers to Charles E. Bartlett who in turn, gave them to the anthropology department at the State University of New York at Geneseo. There is a published guide to this collection entitled Handbook for Archival Research in the Dr. Charles E. Bartlett Iroquois Collection. Memorials for Jesse Cornplanter appear in the New York State Archeological Association's Bulletin, #10, July, 1957, pp 1-3, 18.

The Cornplanter Medal for Iroquois Research has been founded from the sales of a series of zinc-etched reproductions of pen-and-ink drawings by a Seneca Indian boy, named Jesse Cornplanter. This untaught Iroquois boy, thirteen years old at the time of drawing these pictures, delights to make pictures representing Indian life. This set of pictures, fifteen in number, drawn for me, represent Iroquois games and dances. The cost of reproducing them was borne by ten gentlemen with the understanding that their sale was to supply means for making the dies and first strike of a medal for recognition of researches upon the Iroquois.

Jesse Cornplanter--A Tribute

by Nick Bailey

The death of Jesse Cornplanter forcibly brings uppermost in my mind the appropriate sentiment: "A mighty oak has fallen".

In his passing the Longhouse lost one of its staunchest supporters-one whose whole life was demonstrably portrayed in total enwrapment of the consolation and spirituality of the simple religious beliefs of his forefathers; and, who remained to the very end, in the truest and best sense, a sincere, devoted, and dedicated Faith Keeper.

Personally I lost not only a close friend whose personal worth never ceased to wholly command my esteem, honor and tribute, but also a most willing and generous counselor, whose deep well of knowledge and information was ever mine for the asking. Working together many years--he the demonstrator, I the expounder--always our purpose was to create a true portrait of the fine, uplifting, sustaining spiritual values inherent in the religion, customs, and ceremonies of our people. When Son-doweh-go-wah, the dread Angel of Death, summoned him to man's inexorable doom, Cornplanter departed hence- "in the glory of the sunset in the purple mists of evening" through the parted veil, into the land of the ever-living.

Who will say that no loving hands took his own in joyous greeting, to guide and accompany him on his journey to the abode of his Maker, "To the Islands of the Blessed To the Kingdom of Ha-wen-e-yoh To the land of the Hereafter."

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 leader and war chief, his Seneca name was Hayonhwonhish (He Strokes the Rushes). He illustrated several books about Seneca and Iroquois life. Jesse Cornplanter wrote and illustrated Legends of the Longhouse (1938), which records many Iroquois traditional stories. Cornplanter was also the first Native American to play a lead in a feature film titled Hiawatha, which was released in 1913 and a year before the notable Western The Squaw Man.

Jesse Cornplanter was born in 1889 to Seneca parents Nancy Jack and Edward Cornplanter on the Cattaraugus Reservation in New York. His mother was of the Snipe Clan of the Tonawanda and the matrilineal traditions of the tribe passed the Snipe Clan designation to the children. He had six sisters and three brothers, but because of childhood diseases, only two of his sisters survived, Carrie and Anna, until 1918 when Carrie perished. He was the last male direct descendant of Cornplanter, a renowned Seneca war chief during and after the American Revolutionary War.

Although his formal education never progressed past the third grade, his knowledge of Seneca customs, songs and rituals made him a popular resource on Seneca information, sought both from within and also outside the tribe.

During World War I, Cornplanter enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 and served in Europe until honorably discharged in 1919. He was wounded during the war and received the Purple Heart. While he was serving in the war, his father died. This was followed by the deaths of most of his remaining family in the 1918 flu pandemic, including his mother Nancy, sister Carrie, and nieces and nephews. Only his sister Anna and two orphaned children of Carrie survived. Cornplanter helped support and rear the surviving children upon his return from Europe.

After the war, Cornplanter held many respected positions within his tribe. These included the ceremonial chief of the Long House and the chief of New Town, a traditional village. He sang for the Great Feather Dancer and was head singer for many ceremonies.

Cornplanter was married to Elsina Billy (Seneca name Yoweh'sonh) of the Beaver Clan of the Tonawanda.

Because Jesse Cornplanter left no heirs, his death in 1957 marked the official expiration of a treaty granting Cornplanter's heirs a perpetual Pennsylvania land grant, called the Cornplanter Tract, of about 1500 acres along the Allegheny River. Much of this land was submerged by the Allegheny Reservoir after completion of the Kinzua Dam in 1965. The US Army Corps of Engineers acquired the land and built the dam for flood control, hydropower and recreation. This was in addition to 10,000 acres along the Allegheny River the COE took by right of eminent domain from the Seneca Nation.

In 1906, Cornplanter accompanied his father Edward, acting and singing in the Hiawatha pageant for many months. His travels with the troop also took him to England and Europe where his performances were favorably noted.

He also played the part of Hiawatha in Frank E. Moore's silent film Hiawatha, released in 1913. The feature film is stated to be the first to include Native Americans in the cast, and was looked upon favorably when compared to other contemporary Hollywood films portraying Native Americans. Moving Picture News called Cornplanter, "a real matinee idol."

When Cornplanter was only in his teens, he was already gaining recognition for his skillful portrayals of his tribe. He never received formal art training, but became successful as an artist.

Arthur C. Parker (Seneca), later Director of the Rochester Museum, commissioned Cornplanter as a youth to sketch scenes of contemporary Seneca life. This launched an eight-year collaboration between the two starting in 1901. Forty-six of Cornplanter's drawings are in collection SC12845 at the New York State Library.

Frederick Starr commissioned Cornplanter to illustrate Iroquois Indian Games and Dances (c. 1903), a book of sketches depicting rituals, dances and games of Iroquois life. The young artist was credited as illustrator on the book's cover as "Jesse Cornplanter, Seneca Indian Boy". In selecting the 12 year old Cornplanter for the commission, Starr recognized the talent of the artist in showing, "firmness of line, boldness, and good skill in grouping" in his drawings. The proceeds from sales of Jesse's illustrations were used to produce and award the Cornplanter Medal every two years to a person best contributing to the research and knowledge of the Iroquois.

He illustrated The Code of Handsome Lake, a manuscript collaborated between his father, Edward Cornplanter (Seneca name Sosondowah), and Arthur C. Parker.

Cornplanter also wrote and illustrated his own book, Legends of the Longhouse, published in 1938.

His paintings are considered to be in the Iroquois Realist Style. This tradition dates to the 1820s work by brothers, David and Dennis Cusick (Tuscarora).

Although best known for his illustrations, Cornplanter was also a traditional wood carver. He greatly influenced successive generations of Haudenosaunee artists.

Cattaraugus Seneca artist Jesse J. Cornplanter (1889-1957) and anthropologist William Nelson Fenton (1908– 2005) had an extraordinarily productive (and also contentious) relationship over the course of four decades. When they met in 1933, Cornplanter was a forty- four- year- old World War I veteran, wood carver, illustrator, and Longhouse traditionalist, who had already enjoyed several decades of working with Arthur Parker at the Rochester Public Museum (now the Rochester Museum and Science Center). Fenton was a twenty- five- year- old Yale doctoral student eager to learn more about the Six Nations Haudenosaunee, starting with the Seneca.