Chief Red Jacket - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Red Jacket, known as Otetiani in his youth and Segoyewatha after 1780, was a chief and orator of the Seneca Indian tribe. He 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.

In 1791 Robert Morris bought four million acres of land lying between the Genesee and Niagara Rivers in Western New York from the state of Massachusetts. Immediately thereafter, he sold the land to a private Dutch syndicate known as the Holland Land Company. But because there were extensive Indian claims on the land, the Holland Land Company refused to turn over a large percentage of the $4 million purchase price until Morris canceled Indian claims on the land.

Red Jacket was opposed to the sale, but the women of the Iroquios Indian tribe were bribed with a great deal of liquor and trinkets from Robert Morris, and thus convinced the Iroquios chiefs to approve the sale. Fighting as much as he could, the Iroquois chiefs eventually convinced Red Jacket to sell most of the Seneca land in Western New York for $100,000 to Robert Morris. The sale was at Big Tree (now Geneseo, NY) in 1797.

Opposed equally as much to Christianity as he was to questionable land deals with the whites, Red Jacket, in his mid-fifties during the War of 1812, was the leader of the pagan faction throughout the first three decades of the century. In countless speeches throughout this period, the Seneca sachem railed against the "Black Coats" who, he said, were simply advance agents for the land speculators. He despised Christianity and any attempt to convert his people.

Red Jacket opposed not only Christianity but also the establishment and extension onto the reservation of white-run schools and of the laws of the white man. In 1821 a Seneca woman was found guilty of sorcery and was sentenced to death. When the chosen executioner hesitated in his duty, a young Seneca named Tommy Jemmy seized a knife and killed the sorcerer. Jemmy was seized by white authorities, indicted, and tried for murder. Jemmy, with Red Jacket as his counsel, argued that the Senecas constituted a separate community and therefore were subject to their own laws. Although Jemmy was vindicated by a higher court, Red Jacket's vehement opposition to the white man's ways did not end. Indeed, his feelings had grown so strong that in 1820 or 1821 he petitioned Governor Clinton for the removal of white missionaries and teachers from the Buffalo Creek reservation. Governor Clinton was sympathetic. At his urging the state legislature passed a law which forced the removal of "all persons other than Indians" from the Seneca lands. The Seneca mission closed and the missionaries and teachers retired to Buffalo.

Description: Native American Seneca Indian chief. Date of birth: 01/01/1752 Date of death: 01/20/1830 Area of notoriety: Historical Figure Marker Type: Statue Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8AM-7PM (seasonal) Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.

We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. However, only respectful photographs are allowed. Logs which include photographs representing any form of disrespectful behavior (including those showing personal items placed on or near the grave location) will be subject to deletion.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   06/15/2018 rrrparker visited it 11/04/2017 Bon Echo visited it 04/28/2012 jiggs11 visited it 09/21/2008 Med14Ross visited it

View all visits/logs