The efforts of these gentlemen to induce the Indians to
dispose of their reservations, resulted in calling several Indian
councils, at which Red Jacket was the prominent speaker, and in which the
entire force of his great powers was summoned, to withstand and thwart
their endeavors.
A council for this purpose was convened at their village near Buffalo,
during the summer of 1819. The Hon. Morris S. Miller of Oneida, was
present as a commissioner on the part of the United States; and the Hon.
Nathaniel Gorham of Canandaigua, represented the interests of the state of
Massachusetts. Captain Parrish of Canandaigua, and Captain Horatio Jones
of Genesee, were present as interpreters.
As it was known Red Jacket was to speak in opposition to the interests of
the Land Company, the occasion drew together a large concourse of people;
pale faces as well as red, who were interested in the result of the
negotiations contemplated, as also by a desire to hear the speech of the
distinguished orator of the Senecas. Of this Colonel Stone remarks: "No
subsequent assemblage of the Indians within the state of New York, has
presented so numerous and imposing an array, nor is it likely that so many
of them will ever again meet, on the soil of their fathers."
A gentleman who was present at this treaty by the invitation of a friend,
speaks of it, in the following terms:--"My friend and myself having
arrived on the ground at an early hour; we saw at a little distance from
the wigwams, a group of Indians, under the shade of a cluster of plum
trees, lying on the ground.
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