Great Leader: Shikellamy of the Oneida

Settlers along the frontier owed a great deal to Natives who were willing to serve as guides and otherwise facilitate contact between Natives and Whites.  Shikellamy, an important Oneida leader, was one of those people.

Shikellamy, also known as Swatana, first appears on the historical record in 1728, during a visit of Iroquois leaders to Philadelphia.  His date and place of birth are unknown.  At some point after he had become an adult and proved himself as a warrior, the Iroquois appointed him to oversee their border along the Susquehanna River and also to protect their hunting rights in the Ohio Valley, particularly against the Shawnee and Lenape/Delaware.  This was delicate work, requiring the right combination of strength and diplomacy between the various tribes, who often resented the Iroquois' claims of supremacy in Ohio.  Shikellamy must have gotten along well with the Shawnee, because he lived in one of their villages near what is now Milton, Pennsylvania.  He later moved to the Lenape village of Shamokin, modern-day Sunbury, where the west and north branches of the Susquehanna River join.  In addition to pacifying the Shawnee and Delaware, he also served as a go-between for the Pennsylvania colonial government and the Iroquois Council in Onondaga.  He also served as a guide to early Pennsylvania explorer Conrad Weiser.

Through the friendship of Shikellamy and Weiser, Iroquois leaders were invited to a conference in Philadelphia in 1732.  The meeting went over so well that a series of regular meetings were held thereafter.   A member of the Pennsylvania legislature described Shikellamy as "a trusty, good man".  His good relations with the Delaware/Lenape may have been strained, though, when he assisted the Pennsylvania Legislature to arrange the purchase from the Iroquois of land drained by the Delaware River and south of Blue Mountain in 1736.  The Iroquois had never claimed this land previously.  It had been part of the range of the Delaware, who weren't consulted or informed until after the sale went through.  While the improved relations between the Iroquois and Pennsylvania helped bind the Iroquois more firmly to an alliance with the British during the Seven Years War (1756-1762), it also drove the Lenape to remain allied to France, further contributing to friction on the frontier. 

The Pennsylvania Legislature decided to award Shikellamy by building a house for him at Shamokin.  He was willing to cooperate with the Moravian missionaries because he believed they had the Natives' best interest at heart, and served as a go-between for them and other Native leaders in the area.  Shikellamy finally converted to Christianity in 1748, just before his death of an unspecified illness.  He was succeeded in his role as leader and diplomat by his son, John Shikellamy, also known as John Logan.  Either this son or his brother, named James Logan after a close personal friend of Shikellamy's, was the Mingo leader Logan who may have spoken the words that have come to be known as Logan's Lament.  Another son of Shikellamy was given the English name John Petty, after another trading friend of his fathers.  All of Shikellamy's sons were noted warriors, two of them dying in battle for their people. 

Several places in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania are named for Shikellamy, including Shikellamy State Park, Shikellamy High School, an elementary school district, and a Boy Scout troop, to name a few.