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'Red Jacket' (known as 'Otetiani' in his youth and 'Segoyewatha' after 1780) (c. 1750–January 20, 1830) was a Native American Seneca chief of the Wolf clan^[1] and orator. He was born near present day Geneva, New York and lived much of his life in Seneca territory in the Genesee River Valley. Although they often met together at the Long House, he and Mohawk chief Joseph Brant were bitter enemies and rivals.
He was a signatory along with Cornplanter and fifty other Iroquois, of the sale of most of the Seneca land in western New York for $100,000 to Robert Morris. He originally tried to prevent the sale, but was not able to convince the others, and gave up his opposition. The sale was at Big Tree (now Geneseo, New York in present Livingston County) in 1797 and was well "greased" by a great deal of liquor and bribes of trinkets to the Iroquois women. Morris, who had previously purchased the land from Massachusetts, subject to the Indian title, then sold it to the Holland Land Company, retaining only the Morris Reserve, an estate near present day Rochester.
Red Jacket took this name, one of several, for a highly favored embroidered coat given to him by the British for his wartime services. The Senecas took the British side during the American Revolution, a costly mistake, since their ally lost. In the War of 1812, Red Jacket supported the American side.
Red Jacket was also known for his speechmaking skill. His alternative name, Segoyewatha, roughly translates ''he keeps them awake''. He is best known for his response to a New England missionary (a Mr. Cram) who had requested in 1805 to do mission work among the Senecas. Red Jacket's famous speech, as an apologist for the Native American religion, was called Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red.
Red Jacket had a problem with alcohol and deeply regretted his first drink. Once a lady asked him if he had any children. Red Jacket, who had lost most of his children to illness, replied sorrowfully:
:''Red Jacket was once a great man, and in favor with the Great Spirit. He was a lofty pine among the smaller trees of the forest. But, after years of glory, he degraded himself by drinking the firewater of the white man. The Great Spirit has looked upon him in anger, and his lightning has stripped the pine of its branches.''
In his later years, he lived in Buffalo, New York. Red Jacket's grave and a monument to his honor are in Forest Lawn Cemetery. A complex of domitory buildings at the University at Buffalo is named after him.
The Red Jacket clipper ship that set the unbroken speed record from New York to Liverpool is named after him. A public school system, Red Jacket Central, also is named in honor of Segoyewatha and serves the communities of Manchester and Shortsville in Ontario County, New York.
A section of the Buffalo River (New York) is named "Red Jacket Peninsula" in his honor. An informational plaque anointing the aforementioned, with a brief Red Jacket bio as well as other river history, is located along the eastern bank of the river (close to the mouth) at a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation access park, located at the southwestern end of Smith Street in Buffalo, New York.
The community of Red Jacket in southern West Virginia was named for him, though he is not known to have had any personal connection to that region.^[2]

Contents

On the Religion of the White Man

External links

References

On the Religion of the White Man

A speech he gave to a Christian missionary. In it, Red Jacket refers to God as "the great spirit" as he replies and identifies to the great spirit simultaneously as the Christian God. He poses a series of questions about the validity of the bible and argues that the Great Spirit has different designs for his white children and for his red children when it comes to the practice of religion.

External links

★ by John Niles Hubbard

★ ''Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and Red'', Audio from Greatest Speeches in History Podcast

★ Red Jacket: Seneca Orator by Robert G. Koch

References

1. Maine: A Guide 'Down East', , , Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums, Courier-Gazette, Inc., 1970,
2. West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains, Kenny, Hamill, , , The Place Name Press, 1945,