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The following is a brief biography of our namesake. Born c.1724, Guyasuta was a member of a branch of the Seneca tribe, one of the six that made up the Iroquois Nation. Originally from Western New York, Guyasuta’s branch of the Seneca tribe migrated to Western Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Guyasuta was an active participant in the turbulent military and political world of eighteenth century western Pennsylvania. Guyasuta’s name has been translated from the Seneca variously as “Crosses Standing in a Row” and “It Stands up the Cross.”
Guyasuta first surfaces in the historical record as a guide to the young George Washington. He was among a party of Native Americans who guided Washington on his 1753 diplomatic expedition to convince the French to abandon the string of forts they had constructed between present day Erie and Pittsburgh. Washington’s mission was fruitless, however, and the French and Indian War broke out in 1754. Guyasuta, breaking with the eastern Iroquois tribes, allied himself with the French. He likely was present at both the defeat of General Braddock on the Monongahela in 1755, and the defeat of Major James Grant’s small army that was advancing ahead of the Forbes expedition in 1758.
Indian relations with the British in Western Pennsylvania deteriorated further after the French and Indian War functionally ended in 1760. The deterioration culminated with the outbreak of Pontiac’s Rebellion, also known as the Pontiac and Guyasuta War, in 1763. As the latter name suggests, Guyasuta helped to organize the Native American forces, taking part in the attack and siege of Fort Pitt and the Battle of Bushy Run, where Indian forces battled the forces of Colonel Bouquet who had been sent to relieve Fort Pitt.
Ultimately, however, the British were successful in subduing the rebellion and Guyasuta played a crucial role in the peace negotiations of 1764 and 1765. His personal intervention was needed to secure the release of many prisoners taken during the conflict. Between the end of Pontiac’s rebellion and the outbreak of the American Revolution, Guyasuta was an essential diplomatic envoy on the Pennsylvania frontier. Acting as an intermediary between the British imperial government, white settlers, and Native Americans, Guyasuta contributed to creating a relatively stable period on the Pennsylvania frontier. Artist Mark A. West’s statue, “Point of View” installed on Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington in 2006, depicts a 1770 meeting between Guyasuta and George Washington, and provides a representation of just one of Guyasuta’s many diplomatic efforts during this period. (A photograph of the statue is above in our site’s banner.) In addition to actively conducting diplomacy, Guyasuta served as a guide for hire for numerous travelers and traders, travelling as far west as present day Illinois.
The outbreak of the American Revolution abruptly ended this period of relative calm. Though offered a Colonel’s commission in the Continental Army and recruited by the British, Guyasuta attempted to remain neutral. Ultimately this position was untenable and the Iroquois generally, and Guyasuta specifically, joined the conflict on the side of British. Guyasuta was involved in battles at Fort Stanwix and Oriskany in upstate New York, as well as battles near present day Ligonier, Rochester and Hannahstown in Pennsylvania. Following the colonists’ victory, the Seneca were forced to make peace, and Guyasuta again turned to diplomacy in an attempt to negotiate the turbulent cultural changes that were facing his people.
Guyasuta is believed to have died in 1795, though there are conflicting accounts as to where he is buried. In one version he is buried in Sharpsburg, PA near the base of the Highland Park Bridge. The other contends that he was buried on land granted to his nephew, Cornplanter, near the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River.
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