The map has been in the collection of the Warren County Historical Society since 1963.

“The map was on display during the historical society’s April 2024 Warren’s Founders’ Day exhibit when Randee Spruce, curator for the “Onohsagweë: de’ Cultural Center/SINM, was visiting to conduct research for the upcoming unveiling of the original Cornplanter Monument,” Michaell Gray, Warren County Historical Society managing director, said.

“Curator Randee Spruce expressed her interest to SINM Director Hayden Haynes in attaining the map for display. And so the communication began.”

The map, dated May 5, 1871, defines the property lines of Cornplanter’s descendants.

Photos provided to the Times Observer A picture of an 1871 map of the Cornplanter Tract.

“Chief Cornplanter or John Abeel was the son of a Dutch trader and Seneca Indian mother, and was born about 1750 at Ganawagus, New York,” according to the WCHS. “The Senecas were the farthest west of the six nations making up the League of the Iroquois, and the most numerous and powerful.”

Cornplanter was “the principal war chief of the confederation” during the American Revolution and a key leader in the decades that followed.

He died in February 1836 and was buried on the Tract but his remains were exhumed as a result of the Kinzua Dam and moved to what is now as the Riverview, Cornplanter or Corydon cemetery.

The Museum is working on a permanent exhibition on Cornplanter.

“The OCC/SINM is owned and operated by the Seneca Nation of Indians, which is a federally recognized nation,” SINM Director Hayden Hanes said in the request to the WCHS. “In the exhibit, we will be erecting the original Cornplanter monument, showcasing his pipe tomahawk, personal wampum belt, and many other materials related to him.

“It would be extremely impactful to include the framed 1871 John O’ Bail map that is in your (the WCHS) collection into the exhibit since the exhibit focuses on the Cornplanter descendants, and the Cornplanter land grant.”

Gray said that the original Cornplanter monument will be unveiled at the grand opening of the SINM’s exhibit on August 2.

The Museum is located at 82 W. Hetzel St. in Salamanca.

“The current monument, located at the Riverview Cemetery in Warren County on the New York State line, was placed there on Saturday, August 15, 1998,” Gray said. “The new monument’s signage tells of when the original Cornplanter monument was removed and replaced with a new eleven foot, exact replica granite monument, weighing 4,000 pounds, and costing $25,000.”

The map has been in the Society’s archive for decades and it’s clear that they believe it’s now where it should be.

“The historical society board of directors felt strongly that the map should be included with the SINM exhibit in honor of Cornplanter and voted to approve it as a permanent loan per SINM Director Hayden’s request,” Gray said.