In 1870, the year before his death, Nikonha was visited by the American-Canadian ethnologist Horatio Hale, who was seeking to learn about the languages of the mixed peoples at the Reserve.
He described Nikonha as follows, when discussing his findings at an 1883 conference on languages: His appearance, as we first saw him, basking in the sunshine on the slope before his cabin, confirmed the reports, which I had heard, both of his great age and of his marked intelligence.
"A wrinkled, smiling countenance, a high forehead, half-shut eyes, white hair, a scanty, stubby beard, fingers bent with age like a bird's claws" is the description recorded in my note-book.
By the time Nikonha was approximately 14, in 1779, his Tutelo people were living in the Cayuga village of Coreorgonel, New York, near the current location of Ithaca.
The Tutelo survivors fled north with the Cayuga and other Iroquois, settling on land granted to them by the Crown at Grand River in Ontario.