Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha is a classic Native American biography by John Niles Hubbard. The "Life and Times of Red Jacket" by Colonel William L. Stone, has been before the public for many years. The industry and ability of the author have made it a work of great value, and his extensive researches have left but little room for anything new to be said, by one coming after him. Yet the fact need not be concealed that many, who were intimately acquainted with Red Jacket, were disappointed when they came to read this Native ...
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Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha is a classic Native American biography by John Niles Hubbard. The "Life and Times of Red Jacket" by Colonel William L. Stone, has been before the public for many years. The industry and ability of the author have made it a work of great value, and his extensive researches have left but little room for anything new to be said, by one coming after him. Yet the fact need not be concealed that many, who were intimately acquainted with Red Jacket, were disappointed when they came to read this Native American biography. Red Jacket (known as Otetiani in his youth and Sagoyewatha [Keeper Awake] Sa-go-ye-wa-tha as an adult because of his oratorical skills) (c. 1750-January 20, 1830) was a Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan, based in western New York.[1] On behalf of his nation, he negotiated with the new United States after the American Revolutionary War, when the Seneca as British allies were forced to cede much land following the defeat of the British; he signed the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794). He helped secure some Seneca territory in New York state, although most of his people had migrated to Canada for resettlement after the Paris Treaty. Red Jacket's speech on "Religion for the White Man and the Red" (1805) has been preserved as an example of his great oratorical style. Red Jacket's birthplace has long been a matter of debate. Some historians claim he was born about 1750 at Kanadaseaga, also known as the Old Seneca Castle. Present-day Geneva, New York, developed near here, at the foot of Seneca Lake.Others believe he was born near Cayuga Lake and present-day Canoga, [3] Others say he was born south of present-day Branchport, at Keuka Lake near the mouth of Basswood Creek. It is known that he grew up with his family at Basswood Creek, and his mother was buried there after her death. The Iroquois had a matrilineal kinship system, with inheritance and descent figured through the maternal line. Red Jacket was considered to be born into his mother's Wolf Clan, and his social status was based on her family and clan. Red Jacket lived much of his adult life in Seneca territory in the Genesee River Valley in western New York. In the later years of his life, Red Jacket moved to Canada for a short period of time. He and the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant became bitter enemies and rivals before the American Revolutionary War, although they often met together at the Iroquois Confederacy's Longhouse. During the war, when most of both the Seneca and Mohawk were allies of the British, Brant contemptuously referred to Red Jacket as "cow killer". He alleged that at the Battle of Newtown in 1779, Red Jacket killed a cow and used the blood as evidence to claim he had killed an American rebel. Red Jacket became famous as an orator, speaking for the rights of his people. After the war, he played a prominent role in negotiations with the new United States federal government. In 1792 he led a delegation of 50 Native American leaders to Philadelphia. The US president George Washington presented him with a special "peace medal", a large oval of silverplate engraved with an image of Washington on the right-hand side shaking Red Jacket's hand; below was inscribed "George Washington", "Red Jacket", and "1792". Red Jacket wore this medal on his chest in every portrait painted of him. (Today the medal is held in the collection of the Buffalo History Museum) He was also presented with a silver inlaid half-stock long rifle, bearing his initials and Wolf clan emblem in the stock and his later name Sagoyewatha inlaid on the barrel. This rifle has been in private hands since his death.
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