Sachems / Chiefs - Leaders

 

Guyasuta
(c.1725–c.1794)

Was an important leader of the Mingo and Seneca people in the second half of the eighteenth century, playing a central role in the diplomacy and warfare of that era. His name is phonetically rendered as Kayahsotaˀ, and the many spelling variations included Kiasutha, Kiasola, and Kiashuta.

Guyasuta probably served as a scout for young George Washington in 1753, though he played a role in defeating the Braddock Expedition in 1755, and sided with the French in the French and Indian War. Guyasuta was a major player in Pontiac's Rebellion—indeed, some historians once referred to that war as the Pontiac-Guyasuta War.

He is believed to have been born in 1724 into the Seneca tribe in New York, which was one of six tribes in the Iroquois nation. During his childhood, Guyasuta moved into the Ohio Country. He was described as a great warrior and skillful hunter and most probably belonged to a mixed-blooded tribe referred to as the Mingo people who lived along the banks of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers.

Guyasuta's name is translated to mean "It Stands Up the Cross."

He supported Vandalia. A colony that was never formed in early years of Western Virgina, which comprised Lewis, Henry, Barbour and Randolph Counties and an area also known as Hackers Creek, Home of Sam Norris and PrettyHair. He traveled extensively in the West, visiting Indian villages from Illinois to New York espousing Vandalia's cause.

At the outset of the American Revolutionary War, the American revolutionaries attempted to win Guyasuta to their cause but, like most Iroquois, he sided with the British, taking part in the Battle of Oriskany. After the war, the aging Guyasuta worked to establish peaceful relations with the new United States.

Guyasuta was a maternal uncle to Cornplanter and Handsome Lake.

Guyasuta is buried at Custaloga Town Scout Reservation, a Boy Scout camp located along French Creek at the former site of Chief Custaloga's village in French Creek Township, Pennsylvania.

Citations

Wikipedia

http://www.popularpittsburgh.com/pittsburgh-info/pittsburgh-history/washington-guyasuta.aspx

Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

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