Red Jacket

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.