RED JACKET, ORATOR OF THE SENECA

RED JACKET, ORATOR OF THE SENECA

by Joan K. Yanni

Red Jacket

A painting of the Seneca chief Red Jacket (2.91L) is often used in tours centered on Rochester and its history.  The portrait, painted by John L. Mathies, is a striking one—the chief is clad in a red jacket and wears a large silver medal.  Red Jacket was born in 1758 (?) in Canoga, NY, and died January 20, 1830 in Seneca Village, Buffalo.  He was a magnificent orator, and his speeches saved his position as chief of his tribe more than once.  He announced often that he hated the white man; but he fought on the side of the British during the American Revolution, and, both in and out of battle, he wore red coats given him by the English.  After the Revolution, he became a staunch friend of George Washington, whom he admired because of Washington’s fair treatment of the Iroquois.  Washington gave him a silver medal (shown in the painting), which he wore constantly.  He fought for America in the War of 1812.

Red Jacket urged his people to hold on to their tribal customs and religion. He opposed missionaries living on Indian lands, and vainly attempted to preserve Indian jurisdiction over criminal acts committed on Indian property.  The Rochester Boy Scout Council is named Otetiana, Red Jacket’s tribal name, and a school district in Manchester is named after him—though students who come here for tours often have no idea that their school is named after a famous Seneca chief.

The medal in the painting is still in existence—in the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.  After Red Jacket’s death, it was given to his nephew Jimmy Johnson, a fellow member of the Wolf clan and a preacher at Tonowanda.  Ely S. Parker received it from Johnson, and Parker’s heirs passed it on to the Historical Society.  The medal is a large oval, 6 3/4 inches high and 5 inches wide.  If we look closely at the medal in our painting, we can see that an Indian wearing a medal and holding a peace pipe is on the left, and George Washington is on the right, facing him.  The arms and crest of the United States are on the reverse side.

JOHN L. MATHIES was a portrait painter born in Canandaigua in 1816.  Around 1825 he and a friend named William Page established a short-lived art gallery in Rochester.  Though Page left for New York City a year later, Mathies stayed on as a grocer, patent agent and hotelkeeper. His portrait of Red Jacket hung in the Clinton Hotel, which he owned.

Note: The Senecas were part of the Iroquois confederation founded in the 16^th century in the region around central New York State. The original family consisted of five tribes: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca and was known as the League of Five Nations.  In the early 1700s, the Tuscaroras, an Iroquoian tribe from North Carolina, immigrated to New York, were formally admitted to the confederacy, and the name of the league was changed to the League of Six Nations.