We Go to Sleep Content and We Wake Up with Gratitude

A Seneca Chief Explains the Meaning of Happiness

Painting of Sagoyewatha or “Red Jacket” (1752–1830) (Library of Congress)

In 1805, a young Christian minister was sent by the Evangelical Missionary Society of Massachusetts to ask for permission to proselytize to the Seneca people and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy. By way of argument, he denounced the possibility of a true religion aside from Christianity:

There is only one religion, and only one way to serve God, and if you do not embrace the right way you cannot be happy hereafter. You have never worshiped the Great Spirit in a manner acceptable to him; but have all your lives been in great errors and darkness.

Chief Sagoyewatha, “He-Keeps-Them-Awake,” consulted with the Seneca council of chiefs for two hours before responding with a powerful speech in defense of his people’s religion. His memorable oration shines with generosity, wit, clarity, resoluteness, compassion, logic, fairness and grace. Resisting the missionary’s accusations of lives lived in “errors and darkness,” his words embody the wisdom of his own rich tradition and deep humanity.

First, Sagoyewatha reminded the gathering of the true history of how his people and the settlers had first encountered each other. The “great island” had been owned by their forefathers and “the Great Spirit had…