William W Canfield

The Legends of the Iroquois William W Canfield

A wonderous collection of Iroquois myth, told by the great Seneca Chief of the Longhouse, The Cornplanter. This collection was originally published in 1902. The Cornplanter was born in Conewangus, on the Genesee River, probably in the year 1732, and died on Cornplanter Island in the Allegheny River, on March 7, 1836, at the age of one hundred and four years.

The Cornplanter spent his early years at the council-fires, and became one of the most celebrated orators in the Confederation of the Six Nations. He traveled from village to village and sought wisdom from the sages of the Iroquois. It was during this portion of his life that he listened to the traditions that had descended from chief to chief over a period of three centuries. When he had acquired a reputation for bravery and woodcraft second to none of his race, he was unanimously chosen Chief of the Senecas, and came at once into prominence as the leader of the war-parties of that nation in alliance with the French against the English.