Photographs (left to right): Devil's Hopper State Park, Florida; Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia; Cranberry Glades, West Virginia

 

Gayentwahgeh Treaty Belt

NYSM E-37432

Clarke (1931)

Reproduction: R. D. Hamell Jan. 01 2010

Original Size:	Length: 7.25 inches. Width: 2.25 inches. Rows wide: 10.
Reproduction:	Beaded Length: 6.5 inches. Width: 5.0 inches. Length w/fringe: 13.0 inches.
Beads:	Row 38 by 10 wide: Total Beads: 380.
Materials:	Warp: Leather. Weave: Artificial Sinew.

Description:

A short fragment made on buckskin thongs and woven solely in purple beads. This is a portion of the belt given to the civil chief, Cornplanter (Gyantwaka) when the treaty of the Cornplanter Reservation was consummated. At the time of Cornplanter's death in 1836, the belt was divided among his heirs and these portions have been broken up into burial and council strings and variously scattered. Mrs. Converse said of it: "This remnant has never been separated from the treaty, and is a record of the history of the Five Nations. Cornplanter's name and mark head the list of the chiefs who signed, and the treaty and belt were given to him to preserve for his people."

Quote Bardeau (2011)
It represents the treaty belt given to Cornplanter as a record of the land reserved for him in Pennsylvania. At the time of his death in 1836 the belt was divided amongst his heirs and these portions have been broken up into burial and council strings. In 1899, Harriet Converse acquired this fragment, saying: this remnant has never been separated from the treaty, and is a record of the history of the Five nations (sic).” Cornplanter’s name and mark head of the list of Chiefs who signed the treaty, and the belt was given to him to preserve for his people.

Purchased by the museum in 1899, collected by Harriet M. Converse on the Cornplanter Reservation the same year earlier. On loan to the Seneca National Museum, Salamanca, NY

Reference:

Bardeau, Phyllis Eileen Wms. 2011. Definitive Seneca: It's In The Word. Jaré Cardinal, editor. Seneca-Iroquois Museum Publisher, Salamanca, New York, 443pp.

Beauchamp, '01, p. 407-8, pl. 21, fig. 245; Clarke, '16, pl. fac. p.10; Parker, '08, pl. 29, fig. 2.

Clarke, Noah T. 1931 New York State Museum Bulletin No. 288, Fig. 39.