Red jacket

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the former US car brand of the same name, see its manufacturer: OK Machine Works .

Seneca War Chief Red Jacket, lithograph by Henry Corbould, printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel , London, after a painting by CB King

Red Jacket (German: Rotrock ; * around 1750 near Geneva , New York ; † January 20, 1830, presumably in Buffalo ) was an Indian chief of the Seneca and a gifted speaker. In his youth he was known as Otetiani , and after 1780 also as Segoyewatha . He lived most of his life in the Seneca area in the Genesee River valley . Although he often met with Mohawk chief Joseph Brant at council meetings in the longhouse, they were bitter opponents and rivals.

Together with Cornplanter and fifty other Iroquois , he sold most of the Seneca area in western New York for $ 100,000 to Robert Morris . At first he had tried to prevent the sale, but did not succeed in convincing the other Iroquois. So he gave up his resistance. The sale took place in 1797 at Big Tree ( Big Tree ), today Geneseo, New York , instead. Morris bribed those involved with large amounts of alcohol and jewelry for the Iroquois women. Morris had previously acquired the area from Massachusetts on condition that he also obtain a Seneca permit. He then sold everything except the Morris Reserve near Rochester, New York , to the Holland Landgesellschaft.

He adopted the name Red Jacket, among other names, when he was given a richly decorated uniform jacket from the British for his services during the American Revolutionary War , which he loved very much . The Seneca had fought on the British side during this conflict and were among the defeated. In the British-American War of 1812, Red Jacket supported the Americans.

Cenotaph for Red Jacket in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.

Red Jacket was known for his talent as a speechwriter. His other name, Segoyewatha, roughly translates as Who keeps her awake . His best-known work is the response to a request from the New England missionary Cram, who in 1805 asked for permission to proselytize in the Seneca tribal area. In the reply, Red Jacket appeared as an apologist for the Indian religion.

Red Jacket had a drinking problem and was deeply sorry to have started drinking. A lady once asked him if he had any children. He had lost most of his children to illness, so he replied sadly:

Red Jacket was once a great man and was favored by the Great Spirit. It was a tall pine tree under many of the smaller trees in the forest. However, after many years of fame, he devalued himself by drinking the white man's firewater. The Great Spirit looked down on him in anger, and his lightning stripped the branches of the pine.

In his later years he lived in Buffalo, New York. Red Jackets grave and cenotaph are in the Buffalo Forest Lawn Cemetery. A sleeping building at the University of Buffalo is named after him.

Web links

Commons : Red Jacket  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• John Niles Hubbard: An account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, Red Jacket and his people, 1750-1830

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Assumptions from the 19th century on the place of birth also refer to Branchport in Yates County and Cayuta in Schuyler County - See: oA, " WAS THIS RED JACKET'S MOTHER ? , December 8, 1893, in: The Sun (link to article accessed: June 14, 2018)