154 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



SEN-K-CAS. 

 [Seneca: Laws of the United States. Seneca: Indian Bureau, 1885.] 



Near Lake Erie, State of New York, 1,200, semi-civilized and agricultural. One of 

 the tribes composing the great compact called the " Six Nations." 



Mr. Catlin visited them and Ked Jacket in 1829-'30. 



263. Red Jacket (Sa-go-ye-wat-ha*) head chief of the tribe; full length, life size, 

 standing on the " Table Rock," Niagara Falls; painted in 18*29. 

 (Plate No. 205, pages 104-106, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 This man was chief for many years, and so remained until his death, in 1830. Per- 

 haps no Indian sachem has ever lived on our frontier whose name and history are 

 better known, or whose talents have been more generally admitted, than those of Red 

 Jacket ; he was, as a savage, very great in council. 



His name, Eed Jacket, came from his wearing a richly embroidered 

 scarlet jacket or coat given to him by a British officer, 



MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON RED JACKET. 



The Senecas are the most numerous remnant of this compact, the League of Iroquois, 

 and have at their head an aged and very distinguished chief, familiarly known 

 throughout the United States by the name of lied Jacket. I painted his portrait 

 from the life, in the costume in which he is represented, and indulged him also in 

 the wish he expressed, that he might be seen standing on the Table Rock, at the 

 Falls of Niagara, about which place he thought his spirit would linger after he was 

 dead. 



The fame, as well as the face, of Red Jacket is generally familiar to the citizens of 

 the United States and the Canadas ; and for the information of those who have not 

 known him, I will briefly say that he has been for many years the head chief of tho 

 scattered remnants of that once powerful compact, the Six Nations, a part of whom 

 reside on their reservations in the vicinity of the Senecas, amounting perhaps, in all, 

 to about 4,000, and owning some 200,000 acres of fine lands. Of this confederacy, the 

 Mohawks and Cayugas chiefly emigrated to Canada some fifty years ago, leaving the 

 Senecas, the Tuscaroras, Oueidas, and Onondagas in the State of New York, on fine 

 tracts of lands, completely surrounded with white population, who by industry and 

 enterprise are making the Indian lands too valuable to be long in their possession, 

 who will no doubt be induced to sell out to the Government, or, in other words, to 

 exchange them for lands west of the Mississippi, where it is the avowed intention of 

 the Government to remove all the border tribes. t 



Red Jacket has been reputed one of the greatest orators of his day, and no doubt 

 more distinguished for his eloquence and his influence in council than as a warrior, 

 in which character I think history has not said much of him. This may be owing, in 

 a great measure, to the fact that the wars of his nation were chiefly fought before his 

 fighting days, and that the greater part of his life and his talents have been spent 

 with his tribe during its downfall ; where, instead of the horrors of Indian wars, they 

 have had a more fatal and destructive enemy to encounter in the insidious encroach- 

 ments of pale faces, which he has been for many years exerting his eloquence and all 

 his talents to resist. Poor old chief — not all the eloquence of Cicerco and Demosthenes 



* Red Jacket's Indian name or title should be pronounced Sa g6 -ye-wat-ha— a as in fate, a as in far ; 

 strongly accented on the second and fourth syllables. 



I Since the above was written the Senecas and all the other remn ants of the Six Nations residing 

 in the State of New York have agreed, in tneaties with the United States, to remove to tracts of coun- 

 try assigned them west of the Mississippi, 1,200 miles from their reservation in the State of New 

 Folk.— G. C. 



