Red Jacket

Red Jacket ( German: Redcoat; * 1750 in Geneva, New York, † January 20, 1830 probably in Buffalo ) was a Native American chief of the Seneca and gifted speaker. In his youth he was known under the name Otetiani, and after 1780 as Segoyewatha. He lived most of his life in Senecagebiet in the valley of the Genesee River. Although often met with the chief of the Mohawk Joseph Brant at the council meetings in the nave, they were bitter enemies and rivals.

Together with Cornplanter and fifty other Iroquois, he sold most of the Senecagebiets in western New York for $ 100,000 to Robert Morris. At first he had tried to prevent the sale, but not, he managed to convince the other Iroquois. That's why he gave up his resistance. The sale took place in 1797 at Big Tree ( Big Tree ), now Geneseo, New York, instead. Morris bribed while the parties with large amounts of alcohol and jewelry for the Iroquois women. Morris, the area had previously acquired from Massachusetts on the condition that he acquires also an approval by the Seneca. Then he sold everything except the Morris Reserve at Rochester, New York to the Holland Land Company.

The name Red Jacket he took, among other names, as if he was given a very beloved by him richly decorated tunic by the British for his service during the American War of Independence. The Seneca had fought on the side of the British during that conflict and had been unsuccessful. In the British -American War of 1812, Red Jacket supported the Americans.

Red Jacket was also known for his talent as a speechwriter. His other name Segoyewatha translates approximately to the it keeps you awake. His most famous work is the response to an inquiry from a New England missionary, Mr. Cram, who had in 1805 asked for permission to proselytize in the tribal territory of the Seneca. In the reply, Red Jacket emerged as an apologist of the Indian religion.

Red Jacket had a problem with alcohol and deeply regretted to have started drinking. A lady once asked him if he had children. He had lost most of his children to disease, and so he answered sadly:

In his later years he lived in Buffalo, New York. Red Jackets grave and memorial located on the Buffalo Forest Lawn Cemetery. A dormitory at the University of Buffalo is named after him.