Sagoyewatha, known to the English as Red Jacket, was a Seneca chief and a chief negotiator of the Canandaigua Peace Treaty of 1794 between the Haudenosaunee (Iriquois) Confederacy and the United States Government. The five note motif in the opening is intended to honor the spoken name Sa-go-ty-wa-tha. The piece slowly builds in hope towards the climatic signing of the treaty. But then, the treaty's promise fades away, leaving the listener with wistful longings for the way things used to be.

—Charles Zettek Jr.