An account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha Red Jacket and his people, 1750-1830

cket's opportunity for

ffice of Sachem-Red Ja

ent created by his spee

eciding the treaty-

risome days and nights, protracted through months and years, are passed, before the arena even is entered, where the race commences in earnest! How many struggling emotions bet

uffer from these contending emotions, ere he awoke finally to the consciousne

d bosom, and their force being expended here, served but to awaken a still stronger desire to try his powers, where he could have the answering sympathy of human hearts. His fame and greatness

n her defence. They were left to make their own peace, or prosecute the war on their own account. Their attitude was yet hostile. No expedition of importance was undertaken, but the border men were constantly annoyed by Indians, who drove away their horses and cattle, and committed other acts of depredat

ght it wiser to try and conciliate them, and if possible win their confidence and esteem, claiming that their

4. It was attended by Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, who were appointed commissioners on the part of the United States. The different tribes of the Iroquois were represented, and Red Jacket w

Spirit was angry that his nation had not advanced him to that dignity. This dream, with the necessary variations, he repeated until, fortunately for him, the small pox broke out among the Senecas. He then proclaimed the loathsome infliction a judgment sent by the Great Spirit, to punish them for their ingratitude to him. The consequence ultimately was, that by administering flattery to some, working upon the superstitious fears of others, and by awakening the admiration of all by his eloquen

eople. The circumstances of their history created a necessity for his transcendent abilities, and the light of his gen

ople, and from this time to the day of his death, we find him connected

through his native forests, to the place where he was to meet in council, the chiefs of the thirteen fires. His own tribes had been wasted, by a long and bloody war. The nation they had so long

indignation, which presently turns to one of proud defiance, as he contemplates the encroaching disposition of the white race.-Now you may detect an air of scorn, and his eye flashes fire, as he regards them at first a feeble colony, which might easily have been crushed by the strong arm of the Iroquois.-A feeling of deep concern directly overspreads his features, as he thinks of their advancing power, and of the prospect of thei

bearing on his nation and race, he deeply scans, and treasures up those burning tho

s lying west of a line commencing at the mouth of a creek four miles east of Niagara, at a place on Lake Ontario called Johnson's Landing; thence south, in a direction always four miles east of the portage, or carrying-path, between Lakes Erie and

laim to western lands, the Iroquois were to be secure in the peace

eloquence to defend his position. The course of his argument and the various means he took to enforce it, we have no means of adequately presenting. A

well as extent of territory, he reminded his hearers of the ancient glory of the Iroquois, and contrasted it with their present wasted and feeble condition

mit their power. A broad continent was open to them on every side, and their seats were large. But now they were met by a people to whom they had surrendered a large portio

hey should be present and join in their deliberations. Their brethren at the west had a right to be consulted in this matter.-It would be unworthy of the name, and exalted fame of the Iroquois, to decide the question without reference to them.- It was a

During the progress of his speech, their emotions were wrought up to a pitch, that seemed to betoken a rising storm, and

inimitable action. They caught fire from his eye, and felt the inspiration, which was kindled in the minds of all who listened to him understandingl

Still he introduces it under the supposition that if delivered there at all, it might have been during the excitement produced among the Indians, by the rejection from the council, by Col. Pickering, of one Johnson, a messenger from Brant, who had been invited to be present at that council. Yet this is by no means probable, as Red Jacket would have been far from rising into eloquence on an occasion, which from his known relations to the proud Mohawk, he would naturally view with satisfaction, instead of resentme

ually with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from the usurpations of white men, with such a bold and faithful pencil, that every auditor was soon roused to vengeance, or melted to tears. The effect was inexpressible. But ere the emotions of admiration and sympathy had subsided, the white men became alarmed. They were in the heart of an Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number, who were inflamed by a remembrance of their injuries, and excited to indignation by the eloquence

by the orator's speech; that by the common usages of war they might lay claim to a much larger extent of territo

he point, yet the treaty was finally brought to a

ommanded more fully the confidence and esteem of his nation. His people looked up to him as a tower of strength, and when he spake, his words fell upon them with the weight of great authority. Better acquainted than his junior associate with the details of war, and understanding likewise the wasted and feeble condition of his people, and having learned in the late conflict something of the power of the enemy they would have

his speech been reported, we might have been as much at a loss as at present, to derive from it a jus

the hearing of the people, they passed forever into oblivion, only as a striking passage may hare been retained in memory. And with them the want of a written language was thus in

e, we have little assurance of any thing better than mutilated transcripts of the original. Need we be surprised then, to find in Red Jacke

nce, his reported speeches fail to do him justice, or

the former, we present an admitted and proclaimed fact. His contemporaries, while they conceded to him the highest att

ar shade given to the idea, its beauty in its own native idiom, was often entirely lost in the transfer. In much the same way,

ails that are reported, the reporter himself has been carried away by the very flood that surrounded, uplifted, and carried away the mass of those who heard him speak. So th

rsuade the disaffected into a reconciliation with it, the attempt was but partially successful, and was made at the expense of his own high standing among his people. They were not easily reconciled, and w

e is the land which our children, and their children after them are to lie down upon? When the Sun goes down he opens his heart before God, and earlier than the sun appear