Red Jacket (known as Otetiani in his youth and Sagoyewatha after 1780) (c. 1750–January 20, 1830) was a Native American Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan.
LifeRed Jacket's birthplace has long been a matter of debate. Some historians claim he was born near the foot of Seneca Lake at the Old Seneca Castle
near Geneva, NY. Others believe he was born on the shores of Cayuga Lake, near Canoga, NY, while others place his birth south of Branchport, NY, on
Keuka Lake near the mouth of Basswood Creek.It is known that he spent much of his youth at Basswood creek, which is the site of his mother's burial place.
Red Jacket lived much of his adult 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. Brant contemptuously referred to Red Jacket as "cow killer" alleging that at the Battle of Newtown
in 1779 Red Jacket killed a cow and then used the blood to claim he had killed an American.
President's House, Philadelphia. Red Jacket met with George Washington, and later John Adams, in the presidential mansion in Philadelphia, then the
temporary national capital. Red Jacket became famous as an orator, speaking for the rights of his people. He played a prominent role in negotiations with
the new federal government. In 1792 he was heading a delegation of 50 people to Philadelphia where president George Washington presented him with a
special "peace medal", a large oval silver plate showing an image of Washington on the right hand side shaking his hand engraved upon it, below the inscription
"George Washington", "Red Jacket", and "1792". Red Jacket wore this medal on his chest in every portrait painted of him. (That medal survives today in the
collection of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.) In 1794, Red Jacket was a signatory along with Cornplanter and fifty other Iroquois, of the
Treaty of Canandaigua confirming peace with the United States and the earlier boundaries of 1788 the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of most of the Seneca land
east of the Genesee River in western New York.
In 1797, Robert Morris then purchased rights to some lands west of Genesee River from the Senecas for $100,000 by the Treaty of Big Tree (now Geneseo, New York
in present Livingston County). He originally tried to prevent the sale, but was not able to convince the others, and gave up his opposition. The sale was well
"greased" by a great deal of liquor and bribes of trinkets to the Iroquois women[citation needed]. 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.
During the negotiations Joseph Brant told an insulting story about Red Jacket, and only the intervention of Cornplanter stopped Red Jacket from killing Brant.
Monument at Forest Lawn Cemetery.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 ultimately lost. In the War of 1812,
Red Jacket supported the American side.
Red Jacket was also known for his oratory 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. He was initially buried in a
Native American cemetery but his remains were dug up and reinterred at Forest Lawn despite his specific instructions that no white man dig up and rebury him.