362 



RED JACKET 



[b. a. e. 



of white men, falsehoods to the President; 

 with creating and fomenting divisions 

 and disturbances among his people; with 

 having "a bad heart" for having in a 

 time of famine among his people hidden 

 the body of a deer which he had killed 

 instead of sharing it with them; with 

 stealing and appropriating to his own use 

 goods which as annuities belonged to 

 orphan children and to old people; and 

 with being a traitor to the United States, 

 since, in the War of 1812, they charged, 

 "you divided us — you acted against our 

 Father, the President, and his officers, 

 and advised with those who were not 

 friends." 



Replying to a question asking the rea- 

 sons for his unyielding opposition to the 

 establishment of missionaries among his 

 people. Red Jacket said, with a sarcastic 

 smile: "Because they do us no good. If 

 they are not useful to the white people, 

 ^^hy do they send them among the In- 

 dians ; if they are useful to the white peo- 

 ple, and do them good, why do they not 

 keep them at home? They are surely 

 bad enough to need the labor of every 

 one who can make them better. These 

 men know that we do not understand 

 their religion. We can not read their 

 book ; they tell different stories about 

 what it contains, and we believe they 

 make the book talk to suit themselves. 

 . . . The Great Spirit will not punish for 

 what we do not know. . . . These black 

 coats talk to the Great Spirit, and ask 

 light, that we may see as they do, when 

 they are blind themselves, and quarrel 

 about thelight which guidesthem. These 

 things we do not understand. . . . The 

 black coats tell us to work and raise corn ; 

 they do nothing themselves, and would 

 starve to death if somebody did not feed 

 them. All they do is to pray to the 

 Great Spirit ; but that will not make corn 

 or potatoes grow ; if it will, why do they 

 beg from us, and from the white people. 

 . . . The Indians can never be civilized; 

 they are not like white men. . . . We 

 are few and weak, but may for a long 

 time be happy, if we hold fast to our 

 country and the religion of our fathers." 

 The atheistic notions expressed in this 

 reply were clearly adopted from white 

 men. 



In 1821, a woman named Caughquaw- 

 taugh, after being tried by the Seneca 

 council, was executed as a witch by 

 Tommy Jemmy, otherwise called Soon- 

 ongize (Shon6°'gaiz ) . This act coming to 

 the knowledge of the neighboring whites, 

 they had the executioner arrested and 

 imprisoned. The plea of Tommy Jemmy 

 at the trial was that the Indians were an 

 independent people and so exercised 

 original jurisdiction over their criminals. 



At this trial Red Jacket was called as a 

 witness to testify concerning the customs 

 of his people. At an opportune moment, 

 however, it is alleged, he gave utterance 

 to the following sentiments as a rebuke 

 to those who were inclined to ridicule 

 the Indian belief in witchcraft : " What? 

 Do you denounce us as fools and bigots, 

 because we still believe that which you 

 yourselves believed two centuries ago? 

 Your black coats thundered this doctrine 

 from the pulpit, your judges pronounced 

 it from the bench, and sanctioned it with 

 the formalities of law ; and you would 

 now punish our unfortunate brother, for 

 adhering to the faith of Jiis fathers and of 

 yours ! Go to Salem ! Look at the records 

 of your own government, and you will 

 find that hundreds have been executed 

 for the very crime which has called forth 

 the sentence of condemnation against 

 this woman and drawn down upon her 

 the arms of vengeance. What have our 

 brothers done, more than the rulers of 

 your own people have done? And what 

 crime has this man committed, by exe- 

 cuting in a summary way the laws of his 

 country and the command of the Great 

 Spirit?" It is very douMful that Red 

 Jacket possessed all the facts stated in 

 this alleged speech ; it seems rather an 

 extract from the brief of the defendant's 

 attorney than the off-hand allocution of 

 an Indian who could not write his own 

 name and who studiously avoided the 

 company of white men. 



Red Jacket in his life was charged with 

 want of courage and resolution, and even 

 with timidity ; with duplicity, treachery, 

 and even with treason ; and with so far 

 forgetting the proprieties as not to hesi- 

 tate to rob his friends. Stone says of 

 him that he "had been known to exert 

 his eloquence to enkindle a war-spirit in 

 the bosoms of the braves of his nation, 

 and provoke them to take up the hatchet, 

 while he ingeniously avoided the war- 

 path, and availed himself of the absence 

 of the warriors, thus procured, to plunder 

 the goods, and even live-stock, wherever 

 he could — not caring to discriminate be- 

 tween the property of any enemy and 

 that of the absentees of his own people." 

 In a letter to the Duke of Northumber- 

 land, in 1805, Brant bestowed on Red 

 Jacket the name "Cow-killer," because, 

 during the Revolution, having exhorted 

 his fellow warriors to behave with cour- 

 age in an approaching battle and promis- 

 ing to be in the thick of the fight himself, 

 and being missed from the engagement, 

 he was found cutting up a cow belonging 

 to an Indian. Subsequent to the Revo- 

 lution Brant often openly blamed Red 

 Jacket with causing him trouble and em- 

 barrassment during Sullivan's invasion, 



