An Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, or Red Jacket, and His People, 1750-1830

by John Niles Hubbard

"It has already been mentioned and is largely known, that Red Jacket cherished the most violent antipathy toward the American missionaries, who had been located among his people. This led to very strenuous resistance of their influence, and to hatred of their religion, but of the true character of which, he was totally ignorant. His deep attachment to his people, and his great principle that their national glory and even existence, depended upon keeping themselves distinct from white men, lay at the foundation of his aversion to Christianity. Though a pagan, yet his opposition was political, and he cared very little for any religion except so far as it seemed to advance, or endanger the glory and safety of the tribe.

"He had unfortunately been led by designing and corrupt white men, who were interested in the result, falsely to associate the labors of the missionaries, with designs against his nation; and those who wished the Senecas removed from their lands that they might profit by the purchase, and who saw in the success of the mission the chief danger to their plans, artfully enlisted the pagan party, of which Red Jacket was the leader, to oppose the missionaries, and thus effectually led to the final frustration of Red Jacket's policy; in and by the defeat of the missionary enterprise. But as this question is discussed in the sequel, I will not anticipate. Thus much it was necessary to premise, in order to explain the nature and ends of my interview with Red Jacket.

"My object was to explain the true state of the case to him, and after this to recommend the doctrine of Christ to his understanding and heart. My first step, therefore, was to ask him why he so strongly opposed the settlement and labors of the missionaries? He replied, because they are the enemies of the Indians, and under the cloak of doing them good are trying to cheat them out of their lands. I asked him what proof he had of this. He said he had been told so by some of his wise and good friends, among the white men, and he observed that the missionaries were constantly wanting more land, and that by little and little, for themselves, or those who hired them to do it, they would take away all their lands, and drive them off.

"I asked him if he knew there was a body of white men, who had already bought the exclusive right to buy their lands, from the government of New York, and that therefore the missionaries could not hold the lands given or sold them by the Indians, a moment after the latter left their lands and went away. He seemed to be startled by the statement, but said nothing. I proceeded to tell him that the true effect of the missionary influence on the tribe was to secure to them the possession of their lands, by civilizing them, and making them quit the chase, for the cultivation of the soil, building good houses, educating their children, and making them permanent citizens and good men. This was what the speculators did not wish. Therefore they hated the missionaries. He acknowledged that the Christian party among the Indians did as I said; but that was not the way for an Indian to do. Hunting, war and manly pursuits, were best fitted to them. But, said I, your reservation of land is too little for that purpose. It is surrounded by the white people, like a small island by the sea; the deer, the buffalo and bear, have all gone. This won't do. If you intend to live so much longer, you will have to go to the great western wilderness, where there is plenty of game, and no white men to trouble you. But he said, we wish to keep our lands and to be buried by our fathers. I know it, and therefore I say that the missionaries are your best friends; for if you follow the ways they teach, you can still hold your lands, though you cannot have hunting grounds, and therefore you must either do like white men, or remove from your lands, very soon. Your plan of keeping the Indians distinct from the white people is begun too late. If you would do it and have large grounds, and would let the missionaries teach you Christianity, far from the bad habits and big farms of the white people, it would then be well: it would keep your people from being corrupted, and swallowed up by our people who grow so fast around you, and many of whom are very bad. But it is too late to do it here, and you must choose between keeping the missionaries, and being like white men, and going to a far country: as it is, I continued, Red Jacket is doing more than any body else to break up and drive away his people.

"This conversation had much effect upon him. He grasped my hand and said if that were the case it was new to him. He also said he would lay it up in his mind (putting his hand to his noble forehead), and talk of it to the chiefs, and the people.

"It is a very striking fact that the disgraceful scenes now passing before the public eye over the grave of Red Jacket, so early and so sadly fulfil these predictions; and I cannot here forbear to add that the thanks of the nation are due to our present chief-magistrate, [Footnote: The President alluded to is Mr. Van Buren.—W. L. S.] for the firmness with which he has resisted the recent efforts to force a fraudulent treaty on the remnant of this injured people, and drive them against their will, and against law and treaties sacredly made, away from their lands, to satisfy the rapacity of unprincipled men.

"It may be proper here to say likewise, that I do by no means intend to justify, all that possibly may have been done by the missionaries to the Senecas. It is probable the earliest efforts were badly conducted; and men of more ability ought to have been sent to that peculiar and difficult station. But it is not for a moment to be admitted, nor is it credible that the authors of the charge believe it, that the worthy men who at every sacrifice went to the mission among the Senecas, had any other than the purest purposes. I visited the station, and intimately knew the chief missionary. I marked carefully their plan and progress, and do not doubt their usefulness any more than their uprightness; and beyond all doubt it was owing chiefly to malignant influence exerted by white men, that they finally failed in their benevolent designs. But my business is to narrate, not to discuss.

"My next object was to talk with Red Jacket about Christianity itself. He was prompt in his replies, and exercised and encouraged frankness, with a spirit becoming a great man.

"He admitted both its truth and excellence, as adapted to white men. He said some keenly sarcastic things about the treatment that so good a man as Jesus, had received from white men. The white men, he said, ought all to be sent to hell for killing him; but as the Indians had no hand in that transaction, they were in that matter innocent. Jesus Christ was not sent to them; the atonement was not made for them; nor the Bible given to them; and therefore the Christian religion, was not meant for them. If the Great Spirit had intended that the Indians should be Christians, he would have made his revelation to them, as well as to the white men. Not having done so, it was clearly his will that they should continue in the faith of their fathers. He said that the red man was of a totally different race, and needed an entirely different religion, and that it was idle as well as unkind, to try to alter their religion, and give them ours.

"I asked him to point out the difference of the races, contending that they were one, and needed but one religion, and that Christianity was that religion, which Christ intended for, and ordered to be preached, to all men. He had no distinct views of the nature of Christianity as a method of salvation, and denied the need of it. As to the unity of the races, I asked if he ever knew two distinct races, even of the lower animals to propagate their seed from generation to generation. But do not Indians and white men do so? He allowed it; but denied that it proved the matter in hand. I pressed the points of resemblance in every thing but color, and that in the case of the Christian Indians there was a common mind on religion. He finally waived this part of the debate, by saying that one thing was certain, whatever else was not, that white men had a great love for Indian women, and left their traces behind them wherever they could!