have forgotten-we have it written down on paper." "The paper, then, tells a lie," was the confident answer; "I have it written here," continued the chief, placing his hand with great dignity upon his brow. "You Yankees are born with a feather between your fingers; but your paper does not speak the truth. The Indian keeps his knowledge here-this is the book the Great Spirit gave us it does not lie!" A reference was made to the treaty in question, which confirmed every word he had uttered. Lafayette was present at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784, and noticed the young warrior, "who declared that when an alliance was entered into with America, he should consider the sun of his country had set for ever." In his travels through the Indian country, when last in America, it happened at a large assemblage of chiefs, that he referred to the treaty in question, and turning to Red Jacket, said, "pray tell me, if you can, what has become of that daring youth who so decidedly opposed all our propositions for peace and amity! Does he still live, and what is his condition?" "I, myself, am the man," replied Red Jacket, "the decided enemy of the Americans, so long as the hope of opposing them successfully remained, bat now their true and faithful ally until death." Red Jacket was an implacable opponent to Christianity and its teachers. Yet he manifested a better disposition towards the Quakers, who had exercised a watchful guardianship over the Alleghany clan of the Senecas, almost from the signing of the treaty of 1783, by means of boards of visitors and resident agents. To them he made an earnest appeal for assistance, or for the exertion of their influence in keeping the missionaries at a distance. On being questioned why he was so much opposed to the missionaries, after a brief pause, he replied: "Because they do as no good. If they are not useful to the white people, why do they send them among the Indians? If they are useful to the white people, and do them good, why do they not keep them at home? They are surely bad enough to need the labor of every one who can make them better. These men know we do not understand their religion. We cannot read their book-they tell us different stories about what it contains, and we believe they make the book talk to suit themselves. If we had no money, no land, and no country to be cheated out of, these blackcoats would not trouble themselves about our good hereafter. The Great Spirit will not punish us for what we do not know. He will do justice to his red children. These black-coats talk to the Great Spirit, and ask for light, that we may see as they do, when they are blind themselves, and quarrel about the light which guides them. These things we do not understand, and the light they give us makes the straight and plain path trod by our fathers dark and dreary. The black-coats tell us to work and raise corn; they do nothing themselves, and would starve to death if somebody did not feel them. All they do is to pray to the Great Spirit; but that will not make corn or potatoes grow; if it will, why do they beg from us and from the white people? The red men knew nothing of trouble until it came from the white men; as soon as they crossed the great waters they wanted our country, and in return have always been ready to teach us to quarrel about their religion. Red Jacket can never be the friend of such men. The Indians can never be civilized-they are not like white men. If they were raised among the white people, and learned to work, and to read as they do, it would only make their situations worse. They would be treated no better than negroes. We are few and weak, but may for a long time be happy if we hold fast to our country and the religion of our fathers!"* The chief object of the life of Red Jacket was to preserve the independence of his people. His opposition to Christianity, to the education and civilization of his tribe, he maintained till his death. This took place on the twentieth of January, 1830. For some tine previous, fully sensible of his approaching dissolution, he conversed on the subject with philosophic calmness. He visited successively all his most intimate friends at their cabins, and talked with them upon the condition of their nation, in the most impressive and affecting manner. He told them that he was passing away, and his counsels would be heard no more. He ran over the history of his people from the most remote period to which his knowledge extended, and pointed out, as few could, the wrongs, the privations, and the loss of character, which almost of themselves * Colonel M'Kenney's Indian Biography. constituted that history. "I am about to leave you," he said, "and when I am gone, and my warnings shall be no longer heard or regarded, the craft and avarice of the white man will prevail. Many winters have I breasted the storm; but I am an aged tree, and can stand no longer. My leaves are fallen, my branches are withered, and I am shaken by every breeze. Soon my aged trunk will be prostrate, and the foot of the exulting foe of the Indian may be placed upon it in safety; for I have none who will be able to avenge such an indignity. Think not I mourn for myself. go to join the spirits of my fathers, where age cannot come; but my heart fails when I think of my people, who are so soon to be scattered and forgotten." These several interviews were all concluded with particular instructions respecting his domestic affairs and his funeral. "Bury me," said he, "by the side of my former wife; and let my funeral be according to the customs of our nation. Let me be dressed and equipped as my fathers were, that their spirits may rejoice at my coming. Be sure that my grave be not made by a white man; let them not pursue me there."* REPLY TO SAMUEL DEXTER. A succession of outrages upon the Indians | unstopped our ears that we might hear; and residing along the Pennsylvania border, resulting at different times in the murder of several of their people, induced the Senecas and Tuscaroras in February, 1801, to send a deputation of their chiefs to the seat of the Federal Government, which, since the last Seneca embassage, had been transferred from Philadelphia to the City of Washington. Red Jacket was at the head of this deputation, which was received formally, with an appropriate speech, by the acting Secretary at War, Samuel Dexter, on the 10th of February. On the 11th, Red Jacket replied, setting forth the business of his mission in the following speech: removed the obstructions from our throats that we might speak distinctly. You offered to join with us in tearing up the largest pine tree in our forests, and under it to bury the tomahawk. We gladly join with you, brother, in this work, and let us heap rocks and stones on the root of this tree, that the tomahawk may never again be found. BROTHER: We yesterday received your speech, which removed all uneasiness from our minds. We then told you that should it please the Great Spirit to permit us to rise in health this day, you should hear what we have come to say. BROTHER: The business on which we are BROTHER: Your apology for not having wampum is sufficient, and we agree to accept of your speeches on paper, to evince our sincerity accompany a repetition of our assurances with in wishing the tomahawk for ever buried. We these strings. [Strings of Wampum.] BROTHER: We always desire, on similar melancholy occasions, to go through our customary forms of condolence, and have been happy to find the officers of the government of the our minds easy. United States willing in this manner to make office are new men, and, we fear, not fully inBROTHER: We observe that the men now in formed of all that has befallen us. In 1791, a treaty was held by the commissioners of Connow come, is to restore the friendship that has gress with us at Tioga Point, on a similar ocexisted between the United States and the Six murdered in cold blood by white men, since casion. We have lost seven of our warriors, Nations, agreeably to the direction of the com- the conclusion of the war. missioner from the fifteen fires of the United this mighty grievance, and wish some general We are tired of States. He assured us that whensoever, by any arrangement to prevent it in future. The first grievances, the chain of friendship should be- of these was murdered on the banks of the come rusty, we might have it brightened by Ohio, near Fort Pitt. Shortly after, two men calling on you. We dispense with the usual belonging to our first families, were murdered formality of having your speech again read, as we fully comprehended it yesterday, and it would another at Tioga Point; and now the two that at Pine Creek; then one at Fort Franklin; therefore be useless to waste time in a repeti-occasion this visit, on the Big Beaver. These last two had families. The one was a Seneca; the other a Tuscarora. Their families are now destitute of support; and we think that the United States should do something toward their support, as it is to the United States they owe the loss of their heads. tion of it. BROTHER: Yesterday you wiped the tears from our eyes, that we might see clearly; you phy. *Sketch of Red Jacket in M'Kenney's Indian Biogra BROTHER: These offences are always committed in one place on the frontier of Pennsylvania. In the Genesee country we live happy, and no one molests us. I must, therefore, beg that the President will exert all his influence with all officers, civil and military, in that quarter, to remedy this grievance, and trust that he will thus prevent a repetition of it, and save our blood from being spilled in future. [A Belt.] BROTHER: Let me call to mind the treaty between the United States and the Six Nations, concluded at Canandaigua. At that treaty, Col. Pickering, who was commissioner on behalf of the United States, agreed that the United States should pay to the Six Nations four thousand five hundred dollars per annum, and that this should pass through the hands of the superintendent of the United States, to be appointed for that purpose. This treaty was made in the name of the President of the United States, who was then General Washington; and as he is now no more, perhaps the present President would wish to renew the treaty. But if he should think the old one valid, and is willing to let it remain in force, we are also willing. The sum above mentioned we wish to have part of in money, to expend in more agricultural tools, and in purchasing a team, as we have some horses that will do for the purpose. We also wish to build a saw-mill on the Buffalo Creek. If the President, however, thinks proper to have it continue as heretofore, we shall not be very uneasy. Whatever he may do we agree to; we only suggest this for his consideration. [A Belt.] BROTHER: I hand you the above-mentioned treaty, made by Colonel Pickering, in the name of General Washington, and the belt that accompanied it; as he is now dead, we know not if it is still valid. If not, we wish it renewedif it is, we wish it copied on clean parchment. Our money got loose in our trunk and tore it. We also show you the belt which is the path of peace between our Six Nations and the United States. [Treaty and two Belts.] BROTHER: A request was forwarded by us from the Onondaga Nation to the Governor of New York, that he should appoint a commissioner to hold a treaty with them. They have a reservation surrounded by white men which they wish to sell. The Cayugas, also, have a reservation so surrounded that they have been forced to leave it, and they hope that the President's commissioner, whom they expect he will not hesitate to appoint, will be instructed to attend to this business. We also have some business with New York, which we would wish him to attend to. BROTHER: The business that has caused this our long journey, was occasioned by some of your bad men: the expense of it has been heavy on us. We beg that as so great a breach has been made on your part, the President will judge it proper that the United States should bear our expenses to and from home, and whilst here BROTHER: Three horses belonging to the Tuscarora Nation were killed by some men under the command of Major Rivardi, on the plains of Niagara. They have made application. to the superintendent and to Major Rivardi, but get no redress. You make us pay for our breaches of the peace, why should you not pay also? A white man has told us the horses were killed by Major Rivardi's orders, who said they should not be permitted to come there, although it was an open common on which they were killed. Mr. Chapin has the papers respecting these horses, which we request you to take into consideration.* DEFENCE OF STIFF-ARMED-GEORGE. Some time during the year 1802, John Hew- | Indians and the citizens, in which the latter itt, a white man, was murdered at Buffalo Creek, by Stiff-armed-George, an Indian, who was intoxicated at the time he committed the act. His surrender was demanded by the civil authorities of New York. This demand was resisted, the fact of drunkenness on the part of the offender, being pleaded in extenuation of the crime. After several meetings between the had vainly attempted to persuade the former to surrender the culprit, a council of the principal chiefs of the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas, was convened at Canandaigua, to give the question a more solemn consideration. A conference having been arranged between the council and the principal inhabitants, Red Jacket, arguing against the surrender upon the principles already indicated, delivered the fol * Mr. Dexter answered the deputation on the 16th, and lowing speech, addressed particularly to the in the name of the President, (the elder Adams,) promised a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the murners complained of, a compliance with their wishes touching an exchange of certain lands, and payment for the horses killed at Niagara. The expenses of their mission were also directed to be paid.-Stone's Life of Red Jacket. white portion of his audience: BROTHERS: Open your ears, and give your attention. This day is appointed by the Great Spirit to meet our friends at this place. During the many years that we have lived together in this country, good will and harmony have subsisted among us. BROTHERS: We have now come forward on an unhappy occasion. We cannot find words to express our feelings upon it. One of our people has murdered one of your people. So it has been ordered by the Great Spirit, who controls all events. This has been done: we cannot now help it. At first view it would seem to have the effect of putting an end to our friendship; but let us reflect, and put our minds together. Can't we point out measures whereby our peace and harmony may still be preserved? We have come forward to this place, where we have always had a superintendent and friend to receive us, and to make known to him such grievances as lay upon our minds; but now we have none; and we have no guardian,-r -no pro- | tector,-no one is now authorized to receive us. BROTHERS: We, therefore, now call upon you to take our speech in writing, and forward our ideas to the President of the United States. No. Our brother was in liquor, and a quarre ensued, in which the unhappy accident hap pened. We would not excuse him on account of his being in liquor; but such a thing was far from his intention in his sober moments. We are all extremely grieved at it, and are willing to come forward and have it settled, as crimes of the same nature have heretofore been. BROTHERS: Since this accident has taken place, we have been informed that, by the laws of this State, if a murder is committed within it, the murderer must be tried by the laws of the State, and punished with death. BROTHERS: When were such laws explained to us? Did we ever make a treaty with the State of New York, and agree to conform to its laws? No. We are independent of the State of New York. It was the will of the Great Spirit to create us different in color: we have different laws, habits, and customs, from the white people. We shall never consent that the government of this State shall try our brother. We appeal to the government of the United States. BROTHERS: Under the customs and habits of our forefathers we were a happy people; we had laws of our own; they were dear to us. The whites came among us and introduced their customs; they introduced liquor among us, which our forefathers always told us would prove our ruin. BROTHERS: In consequence of the introduction of liquor among us, numbers of our people were killed. A council was held to consider of a remedy, at which it was agreed by us that no private revenge should take place for any such murder-that it was decreed by the Great Spirit, and that a council should be called to consider of redress to the friends of the deceased. BROTHERS: Let us look back to our former situation. While you were under the government of Great Britain, Sir William Johnson was our superintendent, appointed by the king. He had power to settle offences of this kind among all the Indian nations, without adverting to the laws. But under the British government you were uneasy,-you wanted to change it for a better. General Washington went forward as your leader. From his exertions you gained your independence. Immediately afterward a treaty was made between the United States and the Six Nations, whereby a method was pointed out of redressing such an accident as the present. Several such accidents did happen, where we were the sufferers. We now crave the same privilege in making restitution to you, that you adopted toward us in a similar situation. BROTHERS: At the close of our treaty at Philadelphia, General Washington told us that we had formed a chain of friendship which was bright: he hoped it would continue so on our part: that the United States would be equally willing to brighten it, if rusted by any means. A number of murders have been committed on our people we shall only mention the last of them. About two years ago, a few of our warriors were amusing themselves in the woods, to the westward of Fort Pitt; two white men coolly and deliberately took their rifles, travelled nearly three miles to our encampment, fired upon the Indians, killed two men and wounded two children. We then were the party injured. What did we do? We flew to the treaty, and thereby obtained redress, perfectly satisfactory to us, and we hope agreeable to you. This was done a short time before President Adams went out of office: complete peace and harmony was restored. We now want the same method of redress to be pursued. BROTHERS: How did the present accident take place? Did our warriors go from home cool and sober, and commit murder on you?ished with death? | BROTHERS: The President of the United States is called a great man, possessing great power. He may do what he pleases, he may turn men out of office,- -men who held their offices long before he held his. If he can do these things, can he not even control the laws of this State? Can he not appoint a commissioner to come forward to our country and settle the present difference, as we, on our part, have heretofore often done to him, upon a similar occasion? We now call upon you, BROTHERS, to represent these things to the President, and we trust that he will not refuse our request of sending a commissioner to us, with powers to settle the present difference. The consequence of a refusal may be serious. We are determined that our brother shall not be tried by the laws of the State of New York. Their laws make no difference between a crime committed in liquor, and one committed coolly and deliberately Our laws are different, as we have before stated. If tried here, our brother must be hanged. We cannot submit to that;-has a murder been committed upon our people, when was it pun BROTHERS: We have now finished what we had to say on the subject of the murder. We wish to address you upon another, and to have our ideas communicated to the President upon it also. BROTHERS: It was understood at the treaty concluded by Colonel Pickering, that our superintendent should reside in the town of Canandaigua, and for very good reasons: that situation is the most central to the Six Nations; and by subsequent treaties between the State of New York and the Indians, there are still stronger reasons why he should reside here, principally on account of the annuities being stipulated to be paid to our superintendent at this place. These treaties are sacred. If their | superintendent resides elsewhere, the State may object to sending their money to him at a greater distance. We would, therefore, wish our superintendent to reside here at all events. BROTHERS: With regard to the appointment of our present superintendent, we look upon ouselves as much neglected and injured. When General Chapin and Captain Chapin were appointed, our wishes were consulted upon the occasion, and we most cordially agreed to the appointments. Captain Chapin has been turned out, however, within these few days. We do not understand that any neglect of duty has been alleged against him. We are told it is because he differs from the President in his sentiments on government matters. He has also been perfectly satisfactory to us; and had we known of the intention, we should most cordially have united in a petition to the President, to continue him in office. We feel ourselves injured-we have nobody to look to— nobody to listen to our complaints-none to reconcile any differences among us. We are like a young family without a father.* BROTHERS: We understand that the President has appointed a superintendent who is altogether unknown to us, and who is unacquainted with Indian affairs. We know him not in our country. Had we been consulted upon the subject, we might have named some one residing in this country, who was well known to us. Perhaps we might have agreed upon Mr. Oliver Phelps, whose politics, coinciding with those of the President, might have recommended him to the office. BROTHERS: We cannot conclude without again urging you to make known all these our sentiments to the President.t REPLY TO MR. CRAM. In the summer of 1805, a young Missionary | speak to you now as one man. Our minds are named Cram, was sent into the country of the agreed. Six Nations, by the Evangelical Missionary Society of Massachusetts, to found a mission among the Senecas. A council of their chiefs was convoked to hear his propositions. These were made in a short speech, to which the Indians listened with earnest attention. After a long consultation among themselves, Red Jacket rose, and spoke as follows: FRIEND AND BROTHER: It was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day. He orders all things, and has given us a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are opened, that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped, that we have been able to hear distinctly the words you have spoken. For all these favors we thank the Great Spirit; and Him only. BROTHER: This council fire was kindled by you. It was at your request that we came together at this time. We have listened with attention to what you have said. You requested us to speak our minds freely. This gives us great joy; for we now consider that we stand upright before you, and can speak what we think. All have heard your voice, and all BROTHER: You say you want an answer to your talk before you leave this place. It is right you should have one, as you are a great distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you. But we will first look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and what we have heard from the white people. BROTHER: Listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals * Captain Chapin was removed by President Jefferson, as here stated. The eloquent pleadings of the Indians were unavailing They were compelled to surrender the offender to the faexorable law of the white man, though it was done with great reluctance. His name was Stiff-armed-George. He was tried and convicted at the Oyer and Terminer of Ontario County, on the 23d of February, 1803-Brock holst Living ston, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, presiding but as the murder was without pre-existing malice, and was moreover attended by various mitigating circumstances, the court, the attorney-general, the grand jury that indicted him, together with many of the people of Canandaigua, united in a petition to the Governor, George Clinton, for his pardon.-Stone's Life of Red Jacket. |