Seneca was a member of the Seneca tribe who grew up on the Cattaraugus Reservation in western New York State. Seneca played football for Carlisle from 1896 to 1899 and 1901. The first Carlisle football team was formed in 1895, and Seneca was the school's first All-American—nearly a decade before Jim Thorpe began playing for the school. In 1896, Carlisle played games against college football's "Big Four" (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn) and nearly defeated Yale. The New York Times reported on a run by Seneca that nearly won the game against Yale: