The official spelling of the name is Skikellamy.
He was early trained in war, and for his valor was rewarded by adoption into the Oneida tribe, of which he eventually became the chief, an exceptional distinction for one not a member of the tribe and possibly not a full-blooded Indian by birth. It is not probable that he was appointed vicegerent before 1728. He was not present at the treaty with the Five Nations in Philadelphia in July of the preceding year, and James Le Tort does not mention him among the Indians of consequence whom he met “on the upper parts of the River Susquehanna” in the winter of 1727–28.
The first conference that he attended in Philadelphia was that of July 4–5, 1728, but it does not appear that he took any part in the proceedings. He was present on a similar occasion in the following October, when, after the close of the conference, the Council considered “what present might be proper to be made to Shikellamy, of the Five Nations, appointed to reside among the Shawnese, whose services had been and may yet further be of great advantage to this Government.”
At the close of a conference several years later, the Governor having represented that Shikellamy was “a trusty good man and a great lover of the English,” commissioned him as a bearer of a present to the Six Nations and a message inviting them to visit Philadelphia. This they accordingly accepted, arriving August 18, 1732.
Shikellamy was present on this occasion and he and Conrad Weiser were employed to transact business between the Indians and the Provincial Government. He was a great friend of James Logan, and named one of his sons after this popular provincial officer.
In August, 1740, he went to Philadelphia to inquire against whom the British were making preparations for war, rumors of which had reached the great council at Onondaga. He was also present at the conference in Philadelphia July, 1742, at the treaty in Lancaster in June and July, 1744, and at Philadelphia conference in the following August. On April, 1748, accompanied by his son and Conrad Weiser, he visited Philadelphia for the last time, but no business of a public nature was transacted.
One of the chief facts of his life as vicegerent of the Iroquois confederation was his great friendliness to the cause of the Moravian missionaries among the Indians. All the prominent leaders of the Moravian Church who came to the Susquehanna region, visited him at his home at Shamokin, and were kindly received. Count Zinzindorf was among these and none was more favorably impressed with the old Oneida diplomat. His journal for September 22, 1742, reads:
“He was truly an excellent and good man, possessed of many noble qualities of mind, that would do honor to many white men, laying claims to refinement and intelligence. He was possessed of great dignity, sobriety and prudence, and was particularly noted for his extreme kindness to the inhabitants with whom he came in contact.”
Loskiel, who knew him well, thus speaks of him: “Being the first magistrate, and head chief of all the Iroquois Indians living on the banks of the Susquehanna, as far as Onondaga, he thought it incumbent upon him to be very circumspect in his dealings with the white people. He assisted the missionaries in building, and defended them against the insults of the drunken Indians; being himself never addicted to drinking, because, as he expressed it, he never wished to become a fool.”
He had built his house upon pillars, for safety, in which he always shut himself up when any drunken frolic was going on in the village.