BULL. 30] 



Red jacket 



361 



chards, and their harvests in 1779. The 

 meager measure of importance that finally 

 attached to Red Jacket arose largely from 

 his usefulness in communicating officially 

 with the whites after his tribe had unfor- 

 tunately lost the greater number of its 

 leading warriors and noted chieftains. 

 This usefulness lay in his ready utter- 

 ance, in his remarkable memory of the 

 events and transactions between his peo- 

 ple and the white men, where written 

 records were wanting or of little use for 

 the lack of ability to read and write, and, 

 lastly, in his inordinate fondness to be in 

 the i)ublic eye. In no other respect was 

 his influence or usefulness among his 

 people great. They recognized in him 

 merely a fluent speaker; not a reformer 

 or a great leader, but rather a man who 

 was an adept in giving utterance to the 

 thoughts of others or to the common 

 opinion of his tribe or immediate follow- 

 ers rather than to something new and 

 constructive. 



It is commonly believed that Red 

 Jacket was present at the treaty of Ft 

 Stanwix in 1784, and that he made a 

 great speech there in opposition to it. 

 But this is a mistake, since there is no 

 authentic evidence that he was in atten- 

 dance there in any capacity, and, indeed, 

 he was not then a chief. The speech of 

 Red Jacket at the great council of the con- 

 federated Indians held at the mouth of 

 Detroit r. two years later, was, according 

 to authentic records, his first formal pub- 

 lic address, and it has been characterized 

 as a "masterpiece of oratory." In it the 

 speaker eloquently opposed the burying 

 of the hatchet, and because it voiced 

 the predominant feeling of the assembled 

 warriors it received warm approval. 

 The formal address of this council to the 

 Congress of the United States, however, 

 was pacific yet firm in tone. It was 

 frauied and written apparently by Tha- 

 yendanegen, or Captain Joseph Brant, 

 then recently from England, whose views 

 were evidently largely shaped by the 

 contents of a letter written to him by 

 Sidney, one of the British secretaries of 

 state, dated at AVhitehall, Apr. 6, 1786; 

 hence, it would seem that Thayendanegen 

 dominated the action of this council not- 

 withstanding the alleged hostile fulmina- 

 tions of Red Jacket, mentioned above. 

 Red Jacket was a staunch conservative, 

 and, aided by his natural gifts, became 

 the great advocate and defender of the 

 faith and the institutions of his people, 

 and the bitter opponent of the changes 

 suggested and introduced by the culture 

 of the white race. In this emergency, 

 Red Jacket, a product of the institutions 

 and culture of the Seneca — the so-called 

 paganism of the Iroquois — championed 



the customs, the religion, and the institu- 

 tions of his tribesmen, and, in addition, 

 at least in appearance, strove manfully to 

 prevent the sale of the lands of his people. 

 In his chosen position he yielded nothing 

 to persuasion, and he was unmoved by 

 bribery or threats. Red Jacket carried 

 his unreasoning conservatism to such a 

 degree that he bitterly antagonized all 

 educational, industrial, and missionary 

 efforts designed for the betterment of his 

 people, believing, he protested, that such 

 instruction wholly unfitted an Indian for 

 any kind of useful endeavor. In this be- 

 lief he was not alone. Addressing him- 

 self to a young man who had been 

 educated among the whites, he derisively 

 exclaimed, "What have we here? You 

 are neither a white man nor an Indian; 

 for heaven's sake tell us, what are you?" 

 It is even asserted that he treated with 

 unconcealed contempt any Indian who 

 made use of a stool or a chair in his 

 cabin. Finally, however, the force of 

 circumstances compelled him reluctantly 

 to acquiesce in measures designed to 

 ameliorate the condition of his people. 



In 1821 the legislature of New York 

 enacted a law forbidding the residence of 

 white men on Indian lands. In the fol- 

 lowing year, the chief of the Christian 

 party among the Seneca and the "friends 

 of Christianity and civilization in this 

 and adjoining counties" sought to have 

 this law changed in such manner that 

 ministers of the Gospel and mechanics 

 of good moral character might be ex- 

 empted from its operations. In this, 

 however, they failed, whereupon the 

 pagan party among the Seneca, abetted 

 by "some white pagans," led by Red 

 Jacket, entered complaint against the 

 further residence of the missionary on 

 the Seneca reservation, and in 1824 the 

 mission was abandoned. The law, how- 

 ever, was later amended, and ]\Ir Harris, 

 the missionary, had the satisfaction of 

 returning to the reservation in June 1825. 



When the Seneca Christian party had 

 grown in numbers and included many 

 influential chiefs, and the schools had 

 gained a fair foothold, its members be- 

 came impatient under the dictation of 

 one whose intemperance and profligacy 

 had lessened him in their esteem, and 

 in Sept. 1827 they, including 26 chiefs, 

 took steps w'hich resulted in the deposi- 

 tion of Red Jacket from his chiefship; 

 but he was afterward relieved of this 

 humiliation by his reinstatement through 

 the mediation of the Office of Indian 

 Affairs. In the document setting forth 

 the reasons, among many, for his deposi- 

 tion, signed by 26 leading chiefs of his 

 tribe. Red Jacket is charged among other 

 things with sending, by the solicited aid 



