The paperweight bears Native American chief in full headdress, facing half right. At bottom, SENECA / NEW YORK
Seneca, New York is in the area where the native Seneca people, an Iroquois-speaking people lived.
In the 21st century, more than 10,000 Seneca live in the United States, which has three federally recognized Seneca tribes. Two are in New York: the Seneca Nation of New York, with two reservations in western New York near Buffalo; and the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Native Americans. The Seneca-Cayuga Nation is located in Oklahoma, where their ancestors were relocated from Ohio during Indian Removal. Approximately 1,000 Seneca live in Canada, near Brantford, Ontario, at the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation. They are descendants of Seneca who resettled there after the American Revolution, as they had been allies of the British and forced to cede much of their lands.
The paperweight has two half-spherical ball feet at the top, so that it rests at a slight angle. It measures 63.2mm x 101.6mm and was struck by the Whitehad-Hoag Company of Newark, New Jersey.
