"Cornplanter (c.1736-1836) was a great war captain of the Seneca nation, a member of the Iroquois Confederacy. The American Revolution split this Confederacy, destroying its New York bulwark against the whites. Most of the Iroquois, including Cornplanter's tribe, sided with the British against the Americans. To eliminate any threat from the Senecas, the most powerful member of the Iroquois Confederacy, in 1779 General George Washington dispatched General John Sullivan, along with four thousand men, to lay waste and devastate the Iroquois homeland. During this invasion of Seneca territory, the only full-scale military engagement between the Senecas and US soldiers to take place in Yates County occurred at Kashong Creek. The devastation inflicted upon the Senecas, in terms of lives and property lost, was immense. Over forty villages were wiped out, and more than one-hundred and fifty thousand bushels of corn were destroyed, resulting in starvation for the survivors. Defeated, Cornplanter signed a treaty with the government, ceding land to the United States. This disgraced him in the eyes of his people, but made him a favorite of whites, including Thomas Jefferson, with whom Cornplanter became friendly. Cornplanter was reputed to be about a hundred years old at the time of his death".

From: http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/ dbk/cornplanter.html

See also: http://www.geocities.com/ Athens/Oracle/4034/a4.html