Lewis Deerfoot "Hut-geh-so-do-neh" Bennett

Seneca/Snipe Clan

Hut-geh-so-do-neh "He peeks through the door"
known as Deerfoot
The Famous Seneca Indian Runner

"Dearfoot, the Indian long-distance runner, died on the Cattaraugus Reservation in this state on Saturday. His real name was Louis Bennett. He went to England in 1861, where be defeated the English champion runners. He returned to this country in 1863, and subsequently took part in races in this city and Chicago, defeating all comers. His greatest record was made in London, where he ran ten miles in fifty-two minutes."
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110901880/lewis-bennett

"Lewis Bennett was born in 1830 into the Snipe Clan. He was given the name Hut-geh-so-do-neh or “He Peeks Through the Door.” At the time of his birth, his family resided on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, the Senecas’ largest and most populated reservation, situated on lands that make up the present City of Buffalo and environs. There, the Bennett family were members of the Seneca Mission Church. In 1838 in the federal Treaty of Buffalo Creek, the Senecas were dispossessed of all of their lands, except for a one-mile territory, the Oil Spring reservation. Under this treaty, one of the more egregious in American Indian history, the Six Nations, including the Senecas, were to be removed to lands west of Missouri, then the Indian Territory. Most refused to leave New York, including the Bennetts...
After his retirement, Deerfoot returned to his Cattaraugus reservation and took up farming. After his first wife died around 1880, he remarried and raised his six children on his farm. Like prominent Senecas Red Jacket, Ely Parker and William Hoag, Deerfoot became a member of the local Masonic Lodge. He remained a celebrity for the rest of his life because of his extraordinary 22 months in Great Britain...
Deerfoot died the same year, 1896, that the modern Olympic Games were revived in Greece. "
https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/great-iroquois-runners...

Deerfoot was buried in an unmarked grave on the reservation, but because of his international fame he was later re-interred in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery in the shadow of Red Jacket’s monument. He rests next to the graves of Ely Parker as well as chiefs Young King, Little Billy, Captain Pollard, Destroy Town and Tall Peter. Members of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan raised $150 to fund his headstone.

"The bones of Deerfoot, the famous Indian runner, lie no longer in an unmarked grave on the Cattaraugus Reservation, but have been brought to Buffalo and sleep beside those of Red Jacket, Gen. Barker, and other Iroquois chiefs. The transfer was made between March 27th and 29th, the burial in the grave taking place on the latter date. Joseph Keppler of Puck, a member of the Wolf clan of Senecas, was the one through whom the change was made, and Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse had charge of the ceremony of the burial. Deerfoot, or Lewis Bennett, has been dead for 5 years. He won prize after prize by his fleetness. He appeared first on the racetrack in 1865. England as well as America admired this Indian runner and yielded him championships. He was born in 1830."
New York Times Obituary- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deerfoot
https://www.buffalosportshallfame.com/member/lewis-deerfoot-bennett/

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JsLdHDTnnWg&fbclid=IwAR05hDhQQouZTUGH...