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VISUAL ACTIVITYCornplanter Cornplanter, whose Indian name was Kaintwakon (“what one plants”), headed the Seneca delegation at Fort Stanwix in 1784. Raised fully Indian, he was the son of a highborn Seneca woman of the Wolf Clan and a traveling Dutch fur trader he barely knew. During the Revolution, when his father faced capture by Indians, Cornplanter recognized him by his name and released him.READING THE IMAGE: Does this portrait, painted in 1796 by an Italian artist in New York City, convey any clue of Cornplanter’s mixed-race heritage?CONNECTIONS: When the U.S. commissioners met with Cornplanter at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, do you think his mixed-race background might have had any bearing on the outcome of the negotiations? Why or why not?
© Collection of the New-York Historical Society, USA/Bridgeman Images.