In the late 18th century President George Washington gave a combination peace pipe-tomahawk to Seneca Indian leader Cornplanter as a gift to celebrate peace treaty negotiations between the USA and the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
The relic was on display in the State Museum in Albany for decades until it was stolen in the late 1940s
The artifact was nearly forgotten until an anonymous collector called the State Museum and told them he had purchased it and wanted to return it to its rightful owners.
According to an article published in the New York Daily News, the peace pipe-tomahawk was given back to the Seneca Nation of Indians yesterday and is now on display in the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca NY.
Historical records show that President Washington gave the gift to the Iroquois in 1792.
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