During the French and Indian War Hiokatoo was in every battle that was fought along the Susquehanna and Ohio Rivers. At Braddock’s defeat he took two white prisoners and burned them alive in a fire of his own kindling.
Mary Jemison says he participated in the battle at Fort Freeland, on Warrior Run, Northumberland County, July 28, 1779. She says:
“Hiokatoo was in command of the 300 Seneca Indians, and that Captain John MacDonald commanded more than one hundred British regulars. Hiokatoo, with the help of a few Indians, tomahawked every wounded American while earnestly begging with uplifted hands for quarter.”
In an expedition against Cherry Valley, N. Y., Hiokatoo was second in command. This force of hundreds of Indians was determined upon the total destruction of the whites.
Besides these instances, he was in a number of parties during the Revolution, where he ever acted a conspicuous part.
When Tory Colonel John Butler and Chief Joe Brant were making their terrible incursions against the settlers in lower New York and Pennsylvania they frequently resided with Chief Hiokatoo and his wife, Mary Jemison, at their home in the German Flats.
During General Sullivan’s expedition against the Indians in the summer of 1779, Hiokatoo was most active in his attempt to frustrate his plans. During this march Lieutenant Thomas Boyd was captured by the Indians in ambush. While Chief Little Beard was in command at Boyd’s cruel execution, Hiokatoo was a close second.
Hiokatoo was one of the leading actors in the diabolical scene following the capture of Colonel William Crawford, July, 1782, when he was put to death after the most inhuman barbarities were inflicted upon him.
The cruel Indian chief was assisted in these fiendish scenes by Simon Girty, the white savage renegade and outlaw Tory. Hiokatoo was the leading chief in the battle which destroyed Colonel Crawford’s command and personally directed the colonel’s execution. He painted Dr. Knight’s face black with his own hands and had him conducted to the place where he was to be executed. Dr. Knight escaped during the night and was able to reach his home and give the horrid details of Crawford’s execution.
Chief Hiokatoo served in seventeen campaigns during the period of the Revolution, until his death, which occurred on November 20, 1811, at the advanced age of 103 years.