Cornplanter was a Seneca who was one of the great Native American orators in the late 1700's and early 1800's.  He was a rival of Red Jacket (another Seneca), but was born before the birth of Red Jacket, and lived several years after Red Jacket died.  The birth date of Cornplanter has not been definitely determined, but it was between 1732 and 1740.  He was born at Connewaugus, on the Genesee River in New York.  His mother was a fullblood Seneca, and his father is thought to have been an Irishman named O'Bail.  Descendants of Cornplanter say that his father was a Dutch man who went by the name of Abeel.  

Cornplanter was active as a chief of the Seneca's.  He signed many treaties including those made at Fort Stanwix in 1784 and others in 1789, 1797, and 1802.  In 1790, he went to Philadelphia to lay his complaints before George Washington.  He had made an earlier trip to England, and while there had taken up English dress and mannerisms.  Upon his return, his tribesmen tore off his fancy clothes, dressed him in traditional garb, and applied customary greases to his body.

Cornplanter frequently attended councils in Philadelphia, traveling great distances for these sessions, in order to protest treatment of his tribe and make peaceful attempts to secure better conditions.  He died February 18, 1836, at more than ninety years of age.  Some authorities set his age at one hundred years.