“The history of Oil City is old and colorful, woven with tales of the oil boom and of overnight wealth, of Ben Hogan and French Kate, and of fire and flood.” Often missing is the story of a great Seneca leader widely known as Chief Cornplanter. Born John Abeel, Jr. around 1738, his mother was a Seneca Indian princess and his father was a Dutch fur trader. “As a young man, Cornplanter was known to be a valiant warrior in battle. And although he became a Seneca war chief, he was a seeker of peace not war.”

Despite wanting his people to remain neutral, Cornplanter reluctantly fought alongside the British during the American Revolution. After the war, he allied the Six Nations with the United States to “avoid annihilation and complete conquest of their tribal lands. A friend of George Washington, Cornplanter helped the new nation maintain peace with various tribes and prevented threatening alliances from forming.” He also helped negotiate several treaties between Native American tribes and the United States. While the Six Nations generally respected Cornplanter, some harshly criticized him because he ceded large portions of Native American land.

Throughout his life, he served as the main liaison between the Six Nations and both the United States and the state of Pennsylvania. As a friend of the U.S., Cornplanter protected the people of Franklin and Meadville, Pennsylvania for many years. In 1790, he “pleaded with the state for the protection of his people’s lands, utilizing his persuasive oratory and gentle peace tactics.”

To reward his enduring support, the state and federal governments “granted” Cornplanter three tracts of land in Western Pennsylvania. One tract was at the present-day location of Oil City, where Oil Creek and the Allegheny River meet. While the Seneca were relocated to reservations, Cornplanter and his family chose to live on the land grant near Warren, Pennsylvania. He later sold the other two tracts of land.

After Cornplanter’s death in 1836, “his heirs lived peacefully on the final land grant for nearly 125 years. In 1960, following over twenty years of controversy, the United States government passed an appropriation bill for the construction of the Kinzua Dam on Seneca land. When the area was flooded in 1964, destroyed were the last visible remnants of Native American lands in Pennsylvania and displaced were a community of over one hundred families with deep traditions and roots.”

Cornplanter’s legacy lives on in Western Pennsylvania. “A strong warrior, committed peacemaker, and effective statesman, Chief Cornplanter contributed a great deal to the relationship between the Six Nations and the burgeoning United States, as well as the state of Pennsylvania and the Oil Region in the late eighteenth century.”

For more information about the Oil Region National Heritage Area, visit OilRegion.org.