Tah-won-ne-ahs or Thaonawyuthe (born before 1760, died December 26, 1859), known in English as either Chainbreaker to his own people or Governor Blacksnake to the European settlers, was a Seneca war chief and sachem.

Chainbreaker allied with the United States in the War of 1812 and later encouraged some accommodation to European-American settlers, allowing missionaries and teachers on the Seneca reservation.

Importantly, he also led a successful postwar struggle in New York in the 1850s after white men illegally bought Seneca land.

He helped gain a New York State Appeals Court ruling in 1861 that restored the Oil Springs Reservation to the Seneca.

[4] In the matrilineal kinship system of the Iroquois nations, a child is born into his or her mother's clan and gains social status from her family.

In his youth, Chainbreaker accompanied his uncle Cornplanter "on special missions to see General George Washington as well as to members of the Continental Congress".

[6] While Chainbreaker continued to advocate "temperance, morality, and adherence to the overall principles of Handsome Lake," he rejected his uncle's "proscription against Indian participation in the 'white man's wars".

[8] After his work on behalf of the British in the Revolutionary War, Chainbreaker became reconciled to the fact that United States had established independence and had forced the Seneca and other Iroquois nations from most of their lands.

His victory in this New York State court case established a precedent for the land claim settled in June 2005 over Cuba Lake.

[9] After the war, American colonists Stanley Clark, Benjamin Chamberlain, and William Gallagher bought lands adjacent to the Seneca Oil Spring Reservation.