METALLIC ORNAMENTs85n^fw^YORK INDIANS 67 



has a mourning woman seated under a tree. To the left is an eagle, 

 and to the right an ax, etc. The legend is, " Montreal taken 

 MDCCLX." In exergue, " Soc. promoting arts and commerce." 

 Leroux, p. 166. As these have Indian symbols, and one of them 

 Amherst's name and that of Montreal, they seem to suit in every 

 way Johnson's lavish distribution of medals at Oswego, when sent 

 him by his leader. 



Red Jacket's medal has been made the subject of controversy. 

 Fig. 411 is taken from an article in Harper's Magazine, 1866, in 

 which its history is given. A note says: 



It is said that there are in existence other medals, each purporting 

 to be the genuine Red Jacket medal. Possibly copies of it may 

 have been made when it was at one time or another in pawn in the 

 hands of those to whom Red Jacket had pledged it for whisky. 

 But none of these copies were ever owned by Red Jacket himself. 

 The original medal, from which our drawing was made, is, as we 

 write, open to public inspection at the jewelry establishment of 

 Messrs Browne and Spaulding, in Broadway, New York, by whom, 

 with the assent of the owner, it was placed at our disposal for illus- 

 tration. We have in our possession the most abundant proof that 

 it is the genuine, and only genuine, medal presented by Washington 

 to Red Jacket. Harper's, 32:324 



It then belonged to General Ely S. Parker, a Seneca chief. In 

 1890 a medal was presented to the Red Jacket Club of Canandaigua, 

 as having belonged to that chief. Mr William C. Bryant, of Buffalo, 

 wrote to Hon. George S. Conover on the subject, in the following 



words : 



Buffalo, Feb. 3, 1891 



FRIEND CONOVER: There is no rational ground for doubt that 

 the medal worn by General Parker is the one presented by President 

 Washington to Red Jacket. This medal was a familiar object to 

 all Buffalo residents while the old chief lived; and, after his death in 

 1830, it was well known that it descended to, or became the prop- 

 erty of Jemmie Johnson, Red Jacket's nephew and the successor of 

 Handsome Lake, the great Iroquois prophet. Soon afterward, and 

 shortly before Johnson's death, it became the property or possession 

 of General Parker, its present owner. In 1851 or 1852, when a boy, 

 I visited Jemmie Johnson at his cabin, and he exhibited the medal 

 to me. 



It should be remembered that the Red Jacket medal is not a 

 unique article, but one of many which were stricken off by the 



