Ely S. Parker

Common card · No. 258730

Ely Samuel Parker (1828 – August 31, 1895), born Hasanoanda and later condoled as Donehogawa (Seneca: Dó:nihogä́:'wëh), was a Tonawanda Seneca United States Army general and a commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was bilingual, speaking both Seneca and English, and became friends with Lewis Henry Morgan, who became a student of the Haudenosaunee in Upstate New York. Parker earned an engineering degree in college and worked on the Erie Canal, and other projects. A Hoyaneh of the Seneca, Parker was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel during the American Civil War, when he served as adjutant and secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox. Later in his career, Parker rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general. When General Grant became president in 1869, he appointed Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to hold that post.

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