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BRAVEHORSE WARRIOR Kayahsotaa
Seneca Warrior
Chief Kayahsotaa
Warrior Citation
KAYAHSOTAÃ (written Gaiachoton, Geyesutha, Guyasuta, Kayashoton, Kiashuta, Quiasutha), Seneca chief and diplomat; b. c. 1725,
probably on the Genesee River (N.Y.), but his family moved to the Ohio region when he was young; d. on the Cornplanter Grant
(near Corydon, Pa), probably in 1794. His name, spelled Kayahsotaà according to Wallace L. Chafe’s phonemic orthography
of modern Seneca, means it stands up (or sets up) the cross. Although the Iroquois Confederacy had since 1701 been officially
committed to neutrality in the wars between the French and the British, the Iroquois of the Ohio country and the Senecas whose
homes were on the Genesee tended to pursue a pro-French policy. The French strengthened their position in the region in the
early 1750s by building a string of forts from Lake Erie to the forks of the Ohio [Paul Marin de La Malgue]. The British responded
in 1753 by sending the young George Washington to demand that the French withdraw from the area, which both powers claimed.
Years later, Washington remembered Kayahsotaà as being among the Indian escort on his fruitless journey. In 1755 Major-General
Edward Braddock attempted to capture Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pa), and Kayahsotaà was part of the force of French and Native
Americans which met and, under Jean-Daniel Dumas, routed him. In the autumn Kayahsotaà led a delegation of 20 Senecas to confer
with Governor Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil in Montreal.
The fortunes of war turned against the French and their native allies, and despite the assistance given by Kayahsotaà and
other western Senecas, in 1758 Fort Duquesne fell to the British under John Forbes. The French effectively withdrew from the
west in 1759, but hostilities were not at an end. The miserly attitude adopted by Amherst with respect to Native American
presents aggravated the difficulties between the native population and the British, and the result was the outbreak generally
known as the Pontiac rebellion, although it has been called the Kiyasuta and Pontiac war. Political leaders in the egalitarian
societies found in most of North America prior to its conquest by the white man lacked the authority to compel their constituents
to action and relied instead upon suasion. As he had no power to dictate public policy, and only his personal diplomatic skills
to shape public opinion, Kayahsotaà would not seem to merit a major share of the blame, or praise, for the conflict which
flared on the western frontier in 1763. The native population was nearly unanimous with respect to the desirability of attacking
the red-coated troops who had so recently replaced the French in that region, but Kayahsotaà was influential in focusing resentment
and was among the first to urge the use of force. As early as 1761 he and his fellow Seneca Tahahaiadoris were circulating
a large red wampum belt, known as the war hatchet, among the native population clustered about Detroit. According to Sir William
Johnson’s deputy, George Croghan, they privately admitted to him that the purpose was to bring on a general uprising
from Detroit to the Mohawk valley. Sir William himself came to Detroit in September 1761 to counteract their efforts. At the
conference Kayahsotaà denied the charges made against him but found himself contradicted by a Wyandot, and the resulting uproar
was calmed only by the efforts of Johnson. Later an Ottawa speaker, Mécatépilésis, publicly identified Kayahsotaà as “the
bad Bird lately Amongst us.” Johnson met with Kayahsotaà privately and tried to convince the Seneca leader of the error
of his ways, but his diplomacy obtained only a brief respite. In June 1763 the frontier erupted in a general war. Most of
the Six Nations, including the eastern Senecas, remained at peace, but the western Senecas were active against the British.
Kayahsotaà and a few other Senecas fought alongside the Delawares in the siege of Fort Pitt (formerly Fort Duquesne) and against
the relief force under Colonel Henry Bouquet. Native testimony also suggests that he took part in the capture of the British
post at Venango (Franklin, Pa). After the fighting had run its course, Kayahsotaà was among those who signed a preliminary
peace agreement on 12 Aug. 1764, and he was given the task of carrying the conditions of peace to those groups still at war.
At the end of October 1764 Kayahsotaà came to Tuscarawas (near Bolivar, Ohio) with delegates of the Delawares, Shawnees, and
Senecas to meet with Bouquet. Bouquet’s major concern by this time was the release of white captives still in Native
American hands. He reported the negotiations a success, despite the necessity of dispatching Kayahsotaà to the Delawares to
protest the murder of a British soldier. Over 200 white captives were released (although some proved so reluctant to rejoin
white society that Bouquet had to post guards to prevent them from returning to their native captors). Following the conference,
Bouquet sent Kayahsotaà to fetch white captives held by the Wyandots. In the spring of 1765 George Croghan met with the western
Indians at Fort Pitt, and the return of prisoners was again a central issue. Kayahsotaà was there and was appointed a delegate
to yet another conference, this time with Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall (Johnstown, NY). Kayahsotaà and other western
Indians met there from 4 to 13 July to negotiate a final peace. On the last day Kayahsotaà affixed the sign of a wolf, the
eponym of his clan, to the treaty. In the following decade Kayahsotaà served continually as an intermediary between the British
authorities and the native inhabitants of the Ohio region. Frequently journeying between Johnson Hall and the Ohio, he carried
wampum belts and Johnson’s words in attempts to preserve peace in the west or to isolate diplomatically such uncooperative
groups as the Shawnees. The Native American superintendent considered him a “Chief of much Capacity and vast Influence”
and found him “very useful on such Occasions.” When a group of Shawnees appeared at Fort Pitt in the spring of
1773 with a complaint about Virginia surveyors, it was Kayahsotaà who received them and presented them with a wampum belt.
On the other hand the western Native Americans often conveyed their grievances to Johnson through him. For example, the participants
in a major conference held at Fort Pitt in October 1773 sent Kayahsotaà to Johnson Hall with their complaints about unregulated
trade, particularly in liquor. Kayahsotaà was never able to carry out one of Johnson’s major aims, the removal of the
Mingos, Iroquois emigrants to the Ohio country, back to their old homes in what is now upstate New York. The superintendent
feared that these warriors, far from the moderating influence of the Onondaga council and even farther from Johnson Hall,
and carrying with them the well-earned reputation that the Iroquois enjoyed as fighting men, might join their Algonkian speaking
neighbors against the British. Johnson had first asked Kayahsotaà to persuade the Mingos to return in 1765, and the Seneca
chief was still trying unsuccessfully to carry out the policy in 1773. In addition to all his diplomatic activity, KayahsotaÃ
found time to work for various whites in the Ohio valley. His knowledge of the geography and the inhabitants of the region
enabled him to serve as guide and intermediary for travellers and traders. His duties took him several times to Fort de Chartres
(near Prairie du Rocher) in the Illinois country. When the American revolution broke out, Kayahsotaà had already established
a close working relationship with Guy Johnson, successor to Sir William as Native American superintendent. The rebels, however,
were active in courting the chief’s favor. Kayahsotaà was among the Indian leaders meeting representatives of the Continental
Congress at Fort Pitt in October 1775. He agreed that the Shawnees should surrender prisoners and booty captured in their
war with Virginia, which had just concluded, and consented to go to their towns to make sure the surrender was carried out.
In return, he asked for assurance that the boundary of white settlement established by the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) would
be honoured. He also observed astutely that disputes among the rebel representatives might well inhibit the kindling of a
bright council fire so necessary for effective Indian-white communication. The Six Nations held a neutral stance during the
early years of the American revolution. Kayahsotaà moved freely between the rebel post at Fort Pitt and the loyalist stronghold
at Niagara (near Youngstown, N.Y.). To the commandants at both forts he proclaimed the determination of the Six Nations to
take no part in any war between Britain and the colonies. At Fort Pitt on 6 July 1776 he emphasized native opposition to the
movement through Indian lands by armies of either side. Later, he went on an embassy to the Mingos to bring them into line
with the neutral position assumed by the other western tribes. In recognition of his services, the Continental Congress awarded
him a colonel’s commission and a silver gorget. It was inevitable, however, that the native population would eventually
enter the contest on the side of the crown. There were too many grievances against the encroaching Americans and, although
the war disrupted normal economic life, an active role in the conflict promised ample material rewards. With the decision
of the Six Nations in the summer of 1777 to abandon neutrality, Kayahsotaà began to work actively for the royal, and Indian,
cause. Later in the summer he was one of a large body of Indians who accompanied Barrimore Matthew St Leger against the rebels
at Fort Stanwix (Rome, N.Y.). The siege of this fort at the western end of the Mohawk valley was in its initial phase when
word came from Mary Brant [KoñwatsiÃtsiaiéñni] that 800 militiamen were marching to attack the besiegers. It was primarily
the Indians who were dispatched to meet them, and the rebels were repulsed in the bloody battle of Oriskany nearby. KayahsotaÃ
was in the field again soon; in December 1777 Simon Girty* reported that the Seneca chief or members of his war party had
killed four people near Ligonier, Pa. When in 1779 a rebel army commanded by Daniel Brodhead marched from Fort Pitt up the
Allegheny river valley, burning Seneca villages, Kayahsotaà appeared at Niagara demanding 100 soldiers to aid against the
invaders. The hard-pressed British commander refused, and Brodhead’s destructive expedition went largely unopposed.
Kayahsotaà was sent from Niagara in 1780 on a familiar diplomatic task. Anxious to keep the alliance of the western Indians,
Guy Johnson dispatched him on a tour of the Ohio country to call a conference at Detroit. Most of the chiefs of the region
were absent carrying the war into Kentucky with Henry Bird’s expedition; so the messages were left with the Wyandots
for delivery later in the summer. There is some evidence that Kayahsotaà then commanded a party of 30 Wyandots who raided
near Fort McIntosh (Rochester, Pa) in July. In the spring of 1781 Kayahsotaà was again on the diplomatic trail, but illness
detained him for some time at Cattaraugus (near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek, N.Y.). The ageing chief went to war once more,
leading the party which on 13 July 1782 burned Hannastown, Pa, and then went on to attack Wheeling (W. Va). For all intents
and purposes, the American revolution was over, and the Senecas soon made their peace with the United States. There is one
report that the new republic tried to use Kayahsotaà as a peacemaker in the Ohio region, but for the most part the role devolved
on KaiũtwahÃkũ (Cornplanter), probably a nephew of KayahsotaÃ. The Ohio Tribe, however, was bent on a major confrontation
with the Americans which Seneca diplomacy was powerless to stop. As events moved towards a climax, Kayahsotaà carried personal
and public messages to the American commander, Anthony Wayne, at Pittsburgh in 1792, and accompanied Cornplanter to a meeting
with Wayne in 1793. Wayne was organizing and training his force so that he could invade the Ohio country and subdue its native
inhabitants, and he was to achieve success at the battle of Fallen Timbers (near Waterville, Ohio) in August 1794. Cornplanter’s
diplomatic efforts earned him a grant of land in Pennsylvania, and he and his Seneca followers gathered on it at the close
of the century. There Kayahsotaà died and was buried, probably in 1794. From: historical accounts & records
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