KAU-QUA-TAU

Inscription

KAU-QUA-TAU
SENECA WOMAN EXECUTED
FOR WITCHCRAFT IN 1821.
HER SPIRIT BLAMED FOR
GHOSTLY DISTURBANCES IN
CABIN ONCE ON THIS SITE.
NEW YORK FOLKLORE
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2021

The Ebenezer Cemetery on Main Street in West Seneca is the site of centuries of intrigue, the results of which birthed a supernatural legend, one based on verified historical murders, trials, executions, and burials.

In 1821, on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, a seemingly healthy Seneca man fell ill and died. The medicine men considered the death suspicious and concluded it was murder, an act of witchcraft. The prime suspect was the deceased’s nurse, fellow tribeswoman Kau-Qua-Tau. A council found the accused woman guilty of the crime and sentenced her to death.

Kau-Qua-Tau fled to Canada to avoid execution, and her absconding further assured the tribe of her guilt. As justice could only be carried out on Seneca territory, the chiefs lured Kau-Qua-Tau back to the reservation. But upon her return to Seneca land, the appointed executioner refused to perform his duty. Instead, Seneca chief Soo-Nong-Gize took up the knife and dispatched the condemned woman. (For this act, the State of New York charged Soo-Nong-Gize with murder, and in a case that tested the sovereignty of tribal nations, found him not guilty.)

As no tribal members wanted a convicted sorceress interred on their property, the Seneca buried Kau-Qua-Tau beneath her own cabin. Decades later, the Ebenezer Society purchased the land and redistributed the Seneca’s abandoned cabins to its parishioners. The new residents who had the misfortune of receiving Kau-Qua-Tau’s cabin immediately began to complain of sleepless nights full of strange sounds and horrifying visions that crept up from beneath the floorboards.

The Ebenezer Society’s spiritual leader, Christian Mentz, attempted to quash the ghastly rumors by spending a peaceful night in the cabin. The next morning, Mentz ordered the cabin burned to the ground, confirming that the anguished apparition of Kau-Qua-Tau had revealed herself to him. The cabin was razed, and legend says to this day no one else has ever been buried on that spot in Ebenezer Cemetery.