O'Hara Township Community Park - Guyasuta

O'Hara Township Community Park - Guyasuta. . The Native American most closely identified with our region is Guyasuta of the Seneca Nation. His name has many different spellings and it is said to mean, (Gayahsö:dö')“Standing Paddle.” , Guyasuta was a Seneca Wolf Clan chief before his nephew Cornplanter assumed the role. In his youth, his first name was To-Doin-Jo-Wa, “Cracked Earth. ”He was born at Canawaugus (Livingston County, NY) in the Genesee River Valley and first entered Colonial documentation when he escorted a young George Washington to deliver an eviction notice to the French at Fort LeBoeuf (Crawford County, PA). Guyasuta was referred to as the “Young Hunter” in Washington’s memoirs. , He served as prominent war chief for the Chenussio Seneca fighting with the French and was probably at Braddock’s Defeat in 1755. During the Seven Years War (1756-1763), he was the administrator for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the Ohio Valley, but he never assumed the role of a “Half-King.” His role was much more powerful than the roles of the previous two Half-Kings, Tanaghrission and Scarouady. He was one of the principal agents to coordinate what is known as Pontiac’s War in 1763, after which the Seneca aligned their interests with the British. Guyasuta became the Haudenosaunee contact between the western Ohio tribes and the British Empire. Through the American Revolution, with the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy extinguished, he and the Seneca continued to ally themselves with the British. He led the Massacre of Hannastown in 1782. After the American Revolution, Cornplanter, assumed most of Guyasuta’s responsibilities., In 1794, James O’Hara bought Lot #10 in the James Cunningham survey district of the Depreciation Lands (right) at a sheriff’s sale. William Darlington, inheritor of James O’Hara’s Lot #10, claimed that O’Hara bought the lot to build a cabin for Guyasuta. , However, a journal entry by Arthur Lee in 1784 indicates that Guyasuta previously had a cabin there. “About five miles up [the Allegheny at Six Mile Island] you come to what is called Kiosolos [sic] Bottom, from having been formerly the residence of an Indian chief of that name.”, Periodically, he appears in the 1788-1789 written record in the Canawaugus region. He was also a Seneca signer at the Treaty of Fort Harmer (1789). Guyasuta’s last recorded appearance in the Pittsburgh area was June 5 and 6, 1793 when he gave a speech at a conference., According to a February 1, 1794, letter from Cornplanter (New York Historical Society archives) his uncle was living in his home. Guyasuta likely passed away there that same year (Warren County, PA)., It was the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix that deeded Haudenosaunee lands in northwest Pennsylvania to the state. A portion of that land (on the map above in yellow) was divided into lots for war veterans in lieu of payment called Depreciation Lands because of the depreciation of U.S. currency. Pennsylvania in 1791 granted Cornplanter 660 acres along the Allegheny River in Warren County, PA. That land was later flooded in 1965 by the Kinzua Dam; reference the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum website for more on that controversy., For more information about the Seneca Nation, visit their museum in Salamanca, NY. For a preview of what you’ll see, to go to the museum’s website at www.senecamuseum.org., Guyasuta’s presence in our area is based on accounts of his dwelling on or near Six Mile Island. Period maps indicate his burial in that area but documents indicate his true resting place was on Cornplanter’s property in Warren County.