This postcard features Sagoyewatha, also known as Red Jacket. The image is from New-York Historical’s iconic 1828 portrait by Robert Walter Weir. The portrait depicts the famous Seneca Indian chief wearing a red jacket because of the succession of red jackets he wore, the first given to him by a British officer during the Revolutionary War.
Red Jacket (1750 – 1830) was a Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan, based in Western New York. A leader of his people and a great orator, he advocated friendship and co-existence with the white man but asserted the independence and ownership rights of the Indians. In 1792 Red Jacket received from George Washington a silver medal, which he is shown wearing in this portrait, painted during a visit to New York City in 1828.
