My Ancestor Cornplanter

Story About Chief Cornplanter

Related by Emily Tallchief

His great, great granddaughter

“Now these stories are true and came to Solomon Obail from Cornplanter, and Solomon, my father, told me.”

“The Cornplanter reservation Senecas often traveled by canoes down the Allegany river to Pittsburgh. On a certain occasion Cornplanter went with a party of canoeists down the Allegany to Pittsburgh. While on his journey one of the paddlers sang Woine’owi as he paddled. Now as he sang the party was startled by a voice that called from the cliff above, ‘Halt ye!’ The paddlers grounded the canoe and Cornplanter went ashore, where, ascending the cliff, he found a number of Indians gathered about a tree to which a white man was bound. ’So now, Cornplanter,’ said the chief of the band, ’I have called you to kill this man. You may now do as you please with him and we will be satisfied.’ Cornplanter drew forth his long hunting knife and feeling of its sharp edge said, ’So I may do as I wish. Truly then I shall do so.’ So saying he rushed toward the man with upraised knife and brought it down with a flourish. The man was not injured but instead stepped out from the tree free, for Cornplanter’s knife had severed the thongs. ’now,’ said Cornplanter, after some conversation with the man, ’I will hire a guide to take this man back to his home in Philadelphia.’ A warrior accepted the commission and guided the prisoner safely back to his home where he found him to be a man of prominence, a chief among his people.”

“So I say this,” added Mrs. Tallchief, “to show that my grandfather was a good man, just and kind. Because of these qualities he became influential.”
Exerpt from 'The Code of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet.' by A.C. Parker

Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.

 

"Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints." - Chief Seattle

At the turn of the century, half of all Indians in the US were
considered "full-bloods." By 1990 estimates are that only 20% percent are "full-blood". A third of all recognized Indians in the US are the quarter-blood cut off point. Cherokee demographer Russell Thorton estimates that, given continued imposition of purely racial definitions, Native Americans, as a whole, will have disappered by the year 2080.
Blood quantum can lead in only one general direction and that is
down. Once a lineage goes below 100 percent, no matter how many times offspring remarry with "full-blood" spouses, it can't ever be restored back to 100 percent. With blood quantum requirement of 50% mathematically, Native Americans are all just two generations away from extinction.

Native Net 

Hello In There

We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."

Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more,
She sits and stares through the back door screen.
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen.
 

Someday I'll go and call up Rudy,
We worked together at the factory.
But what could I say he if asks "What's new?"
"Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do."

So if you're walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello."

- JOHN PRINE

The 11th Hour

 Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

- ANCIENT INDIAN PROVERB

That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

James 3:2-13 (AMP):
2 For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things] he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.
3 If we set bits in the horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.
4 Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!
6 And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man's nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna).
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).
8 But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God's likeness!
10 Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
11 Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.
13 Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom.

Democratic Precision

The form of governments of the ancient Germans and the modern Indians; in both, the existence of the three divisions of power is marked with a precision that excludes all controversy. The democratical branch, especially, is so determined, that the real sovereignty resided in the body of the people, and was exercised in the assembly of king, nobles, and commons together.

- JOHN ADAMS

It would be a very strange thing, if six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such a Union … and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies.

- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Plutocracy or Despotism?

Democracy is a state of society realised neither by referenda (mass voting for new laws), nor by suffrage (electoral voting for representatives), nor by the representatives’ majorities’ legislatorial voting. Electoral voting, majority rule and ‘consensus politics’ neither create nor define democracy. 

Naturally, people have the moral responsibility, the right and the duty to resist and suppress injustice wherever it occurs, and by whomsoever it is perpetrated, governments notwithstanding. By definition and in practice, Democracy requires that the People at all times retain the Supreme Power to annul injustices and the bad laws made by fallible politicians.

This Power is uniquely embodied in the Citizen-Juror’s Duty in Trial by Jury: to judge the justice of every act of law enforcement, and to render the Not Guilty Verdict whenever conviction or punishment of the accused would be unfair, according to the juror’s conscience.

Despotism? 

Guilty or Innocent

 

 

"I suppose every man proclaims himself innocent, whether innocent or not.

But, I tell you, even the guilty are human. And, as for the innocent who are branded as guilty, theirs is 

 

a special agony beyond all comprehension.

Somehow Wakan Tanka, Tunkashila, the Great Mystery, finds sense and meaning in all of this.

Do the stars have a meaning? Then my life has a meaning."

 

- LEONARD PELTIER 

Healing Power

"We must each be an army of one in the endless struggle between the goodness we are all capable of and the evil that threatens us all from without as well as from within. Yes, we can each be an army of one. One good man or one good woman can change the world, can push back the evil, and their work can be a beacon for millions, for BILLIONS. Are you that man or woman? If so, may the Great Spirit bless you. If not, WHY NOT? We must each of us be that person. That will transform the world overnight. That would be a miracle, yes, but a miracle within our power, our healing power."

- Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings

Secrets of Nature

"A long time ago the Creator came to Turtle Island and said to the Red People, You will be the keepers of the Mother earth. Among you I will give the wisdom about Nature, about the interconnectedness of all things, about balance and about living in harmony. You Red People will see the secrets of Nature. You will live in hardship and the blessing of this is you will stay close to the Creator. The day will come when you will need to share the secrets with other people of the earth because they will stray from their Spiritual ways. The time to start sharing is today."

- Don Coyhis, Mohican

Sacrifice

My friends, how desperately do we need to be loved and to love. Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. We turn inward and to feed upon our own personalities, and little by little we destroy ourselves. With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others.

- Chief Dan George, Coast Salish, 1899-1981

Wake Up

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will mankind find that money cannot be eaten.

Biblical Prophecy

 

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1; To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

“’Hay, hay, hay! Alas, alas!’ Thus speaks the old man, when he knows that his former vigor and freedom is gone from him forever. So we may exclaim to-day, Alas! There is a time appointed to all things. Think for a moment how many multitudes of the animal tribes we ourselves have destroyed! Look upon the snow that appears to-day – to-morrow it is water! Listen to the dirge of the dry leaves, that were green and vigorous but a few moons before! We are a part of this life and it seems that our time is come.

“Yet note how the decay of one nation invigorates another. This strange white man – consider him, his gifts are manifold! His tireless brain, his busy hand do wonders for his race. Those things which we despise he holds as treasures; yet he is so great and so flourishing that there must be some virtue and truth in his philosophy. I wish to say to you, my friends: Be not moved alone by heated arguments and thoughts of revenge! These are for the young. We are young no longer; let us think well, and give counsel as old men!”

- Spoken by Spotted Tail at the Great Council on the Powder River

Our People Have Heroes Too

The boyhood of Crazy Horse was passed in the days when the western Sioux saw a white man but seldom, and then it was usually a trader or a soldier. He was carefully brought up according to the tribal customs. At that period the Sioux prided themselves on the training and development of their sons and daughters, and not a step in that development was overlooked as an excuse to bring the child before the public by giving a feast in its honor. At such times the parents often gave so generously to the needy that they almost impoverished themselves, thus setting an example to the child of self-denial for the general good. His first step alone, the first word spoken, first game killed, the attainment of manhood or womanhood, each was the occasion of a feast and dance in his honor, at which the poor always benefited to the full extent of the parents’ ability.
Big-heartedness, generosity, courage, and self-denial are the qualifications of a public servant, and the average Indian was keen to follow this ideal. As every one knows, these characteristic traits become a weakness when he enters a life founded upon commerce and gain. Under such conditions the life of Crazy Horse began. His mother, like other mothers, tender and watchful of her boy, would never once place an obstacle in the way of his father’s severe physical training. They laid the spiritual and patriotic foundations of his education in such a way that he early became conscious of the demands of public service.
He was perhaps four or five years old when the band was snowed in one severe winter. They were very short of food, but his father was a tireless hunter. The buffalo, their main dependence, were not to be found, but he was out in the storm and cold every day and finally brought in two antelopes. The little boy got on his pet pony and rode through the camp, telling the old folks to come to his mother’s teepee for meat. It turned out that neither his father nor mother had authorized him to do this. Before they knew it, old men and women were lined up before the teepee home, ready to receive the meat, in answer to his invitation. As a result, the mother had to distribute nearly all of it, keeping only enough for two meals.
On the following day the child asked for food. His mother told him that the old folks had taken it all, and added: “Remember, my son, they went home singing praises in your name, not my name or your father’s. You must be brave. You must live up to your reputation.” - Charles A. Eastman, excerpt from Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains

Human Compassion

April, 1980 Michael Wells, United Kingdom. A missionary grabs the hand of a child about to die of hunger in Karamoja, Uganda. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org

"Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."

- Hubert H. Humphrey, Humanitarian, 38th Vice President, US Senator,  1911-1978

BeerBQ TV™: Episode 3: Blue Point Brewery

BeerBQ TV™: Episode 3: Blue Point Brewery

Honor American Indian Treaties

Once again, in history, the Onkwehonwe are being trapped between the financial interests of the "american" colonies and Britain. Haudenosaunee sovereignty has been established long ago. Yet, the US & Britain continue to insist on "validating" our identities?; now co-opting 9/11 and the fallout since that terrible day. Pretty pathetic. They're Lacrosse players; NOT terrorists! I hope this can be settled with the Haudenosaunee way of life and self-determination being left intact. All nations should continue to accept the Haudenosaunee passports and not feed into this nonsense. If Haudenosaunee accept a US passport, that's like saying we are also American citizens, and we are NOT. Geography notwithstanding. We are Haudenosaunee with our own constitution that predates the US', so get over it US & Britain! We are a SOVEREIGN nation and deserving of the same respect you give other nations. This is something US President Obama should know. Skennen.

Rumors of Earthquakes

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows."
-Matthew 24:7-8
What in the world is going on with the earth?  The number of major earthquakes that we are experiencing is absolutely unprecedented.  So just what in blazes is going on?
Well, the reality is that Yahshua (Jesus) told us that there would be earthquakes in the last days.  He told us that this would be a sign that His return was getting closer.  In fact, the earthquakes and the other signs of His coming are supposed to be like birth pains - getting stronger and more intense as we get closer to the day...

Never! Never!

The way, the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided."

We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game, and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum, trinkets, and a grave.

Brothers -- My people wish for peace; the red men all wish for peace; but where the white people are, there is no peace for them, except it be on the bosom of our mother.

Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun.

Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!

Tecumseh - Shawnee

Big Indian

Intermarriages between white people and red ones in this country were not uncommon in the days when our ancestors led as rude a life as the natives, and several places in the Catskills commemorate this fact. Mount Utsayantha, for example, is named for an Indian woman whose life, with that of her baby and her white husband, was lost there. For the white men early found friends among these mountains. As far back as 1663 they spared Catherine Dubois and her three children, after some rash spirits had abducted them and carried them to a place on the upper Walkill, to do them to death; for the captives raised a Huguenot hymn and the hearts of their captors were softened.
In Esopus Valley lived Winnisook, whose height was seven feet, and who was known among the white settlers as "the big Indian." He loved a white girl of the neighborhood, one Gertrude Molyneux, and had asked for her hand; but while she was willing, the objections of her family were too strong to be overcome, and she was teased into marriage with Joseph Bundy, of her own race, instead. She liked the Indian all the better after that, however, because Bundy proved to be a bad fellow, and believing that she could be happier among barbarians than among a people that approved such marriages, she eloped with Winnisook. For a long time all trace of the runaway couple was lost, but one day the man having gone down to the plain to steal cattle, it was alleged, was discovered by some farmers who knew him, and who gave hot chase, coming up with him at the place now called Big Indian.
Foremost in the chase was Bundy. As he came near to the enemy of his peace he exclaimed, "I think the best way to civilize that yellow serpent is to let daylight into his heart," and, drawing his rifle to his shoulder, he fired. Mortally wounded, yet instinctively seeking refuge, the giant staggered into the hollow of a pine-tree, where the farmers lost sight of him. There, however, he was found by Gertrude, bolt upright, yet dead. The unwedded widow brought her dusky children to the place and spent the remainder of her days near his grave. Until a few years ago the tree was still pointed out, but a railroad company has now covered it with an embankment. - by Charles M. Skinner, Myths and Legends of Our Own Land