Red Jacket
1750–1830 1 entry
Biography
Red Jacket, in Seneca Sagoyewatha, “He Keeps Them Awake”, was a Seneca orator and chief, famous for his eloquence. Born around 1750 in the Finger Lakes country of what is now New York, he took his English name from the red coat the British gave him for serving as their messenger during the American Revolution. After the war he became one of the chief speakers of the Seneca in their dealings with the United States, and in 1792 George Washington gave him a large silver peace medal, which he wore for the rest of his life.
In 1805, at a council at Buffalo Creek, he answered a Christian missionary who had asked to work among the Seneca with a speech defending the right of his people to their own faith, which was printed and widely read. He spent the rest of his life opposing the sale of Seneca land and the spread of missions among his people. He died in 1830 near Buffalo.
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