THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 165 



the locality, some of them related to Red Jacket by ties of blood or marriage. The 

 leading men of the Senecas, before the removal of the tribe from the Buffalo Creek 

 Reservation, lay in graves excavated in a small elevated area, at or near the center 

 of the cemetery. The earth there is a dry loam. The graves were two or more feet 

 deeper than it is the practice now to dig them. They uniformly faced the rising sun. 

 Notwithstanding this sacred spot is the property of the Indians, consecrated to the 

 lepose of their dead and those of their faithful missionaries, it has been invaded by 

 the whites, v/ho have buried their deceased friends there in considerable numbers. 

 It was found necessary to tunnel under many of these surreptitious graves in order 

 to rescue the red jnoiirietors who slumbered beneath the strange intruders. About 

 forty graves in all were opened, and all the work was done under the supervision of 

 Henry D. Farwell, esq., the undertaker. Few, if any, articles were found with the 

 remains, save an occasional pipe and the decayed fragments of blankets, broadcloth 

 tunics, silken sashes and turbans, and beaded legging and moccasins. Exception 

 should be made in the instance of a very young child, whose little head was en- 

 wrapped in a voluminous silk handkerchief. In a silken knot close to its ear was a 

 tiny, neatly carved rattle of bone, and on its breast, above the little folded hands, was 

 a small and pretty porcelain drinking cup. But seven of the skeletons could be pos- 

 itively identified, namely, those of Young King, Destroy-Town, Captain Pollard, his 

 wife and his granddaughter, Tall Peter, and Little Billy, the war chief. Nine others, 

 doubtless the remains of warrioxs famous in their day, were exhumed, buried with 

 them at I'^orest Lawn, and will be designated as " the undistinguished dead." — Trans- 

 actions BulFalo, N. Y., Historical Society, vol. 3, 1884. 



RED JACKET. 



General Ely S. Parker {Donehogawa, Open Door), a Seneca, and 

 sachem of the Six i!«rations, at Buffalo, October 8, 1884, thus spoke of 

 lied Jacket: 



It was during the troublous times of the American Revolution that Red Jacket's 

 name lirst appears. He is mentioned as a messenger, or bearer of dispatches, or run- 

 ner for the British. He subsequently appears at the treaty of peace, and at all 

 treaties and councils of importance his uame is always prominent. He was a de- 

 voted lover of his people, and he labored hard for the recognition and restoration to 

 his people of their ancient rights, but in which he was unsuccessful. His political 

 creed did not embrace that i)eculiar doctrine, now .so strongly believed in, that ''to 

 the victors belong the spoils." He did not know that the Sullivan campaign had 

 taken from his people all the vested rights which God had given them, and when, 

 subsequently, he was made to understand that a pre-emptive title hung over the 

 homes of his people he was amazed at the aiidacity of the white man's law which 

 permitted and sanctioned the sale and transfer by one person to another of rights 

 never owned and of properties never seen. From the bottom of my heart I believe 

 that Red Jacket was a true Indian and a most thorough pagan. He used all the 

 powers of his eloquence in opposition to the introduction of civilization and Chris- 

 tianity among his people. In this, as in many other things, he signally failed. So 

 persistent and tenacious was he in his hostility to the white man and his ways and 

 methods that one of his last requests is said to have been that white men should 

 not dig his grave, and that white men should not burj' him. But how forcibly now 

 comes to us the verity and strength of the saying that "man proposes, but God dis- 

 poses." Red Jacket had proposed that his remains should lie buried and undisturbed 

 in the burial idace of his fathers. Very soon after bis death his people removed from 

 their old lands to other homes. Red Jacket's grave remained unprotfcted, and ere 

 long was desecrated. Then God put it into the hearts of these good men of the Buf- 

 falo Historical Society to take charge of his remains, give him a decent burial in a 

 white man's graveyard, and over his grave to erect a monument which should tell his 



