Red Jacket
Red Jacket | |
|---|---|
| Otetiani, later Shagóye:wa:taʼ | |
 Red Jacket from an 1835 lithograph by Henry Corbould, after a painting by Charles Bird King, printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel, and published in History of the Indian Tribes of North America | |
| Tribal chief of the Wolf clan | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1750 |
| Died | January 20, 1830 (aged 79–80) |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Relatives | Ely S. Parker (great grand-nephew) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Seneca nation |
Red Jacket (c. 1750 – January 20, 1830), known as Otetiani ("Always Ready") in his youth and later as Shagóye:wa:taʼ ("Keeper Awake", also written as Sagoyewatha) for his oratorical skills, was a Seneca orator and chief. 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. In his later life, he campaigned against Christianity and in favor of traditional Haudenosaunee religion. 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.