In his position as chief and overseer, Shikellamy served as a supervisor for the Six Nations, overseeing the Shawnee and Lenape tribes in central Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River and protecting the southern border of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Shikellamy was an important figure in the early history of the Province of Pennsylvania and served as a go-between for the colonial government in Philadelphia and the Iroquois chiefs in Onondaga.

[1] The Quaker leadership in Philadelphia soon realized that Shikellamy was an important Indian leader and he was invited back to the capital in 1729.

During a later meeting, Shikellamy, Weiser and the Pennsylvanians negotiated a 1736 treaty in Philadelphia, including a deed whereby the Iroquois sold the land drained by the Delaware River and south of the Blue Mountain.

Since the Iroquois had never until then laid claim to this land, this purchase represented a significant swing in Pennsylvanian policy toward the Native Americans.

Along with the Walking Purchase of 1737, also arranged with the assistance of Shikellamy and Conrad Weiser, this treaty exacerbated Pennsylvania-Lenape relations.

Shikellamy had originally lived in a Shawnee village in the vicinity of modern Milton, along the West Branch Susquehanna River.

However, since British colonial governments preferred to deal with a single leader rather than numerous village elders, Sassoonan emerged as the Delaware "king".

Pennsylvania officials found Sassoonan useful because he could be induced (with the help of gifts and abundantly free liquor) to sign away Indian lands.

[1] Shikellamy's position and status at Shamokin made him an important person in the eyes of the Moravian missionaries who sought to spread the gospel to the Indians of Pennsylvania.

[2] He knew that, unlike other white men, the Moravians had no interest in the Indians' furs and did not want to take their land, nor did the missionaries give Shikellamy's people any alcohol.

The oldest son Tachnechtoris,[4] "The Spreading Oak" known to the white men as John Shikellamy; and in Jones' History of the Juniata Valley, known as Captain Logan.

Shikellamy's wife is known as Neanoma, a Cayuga whom he married in New York State a dozen years before removing to Pennsylvania.

My father after retiring from the war path, settled at Cold Spring, in the Allegheny Reservation, in New York State, where he died in 1844 aged 100 years.

Every morning, winter or summer, rain or shine, at six o'clock he would come out of his house and ring a big dinner bell as a signal for all to get busy.

In my old age I am well cared for by my Indian friends, but regret that 'my blood flows not in any living person,' to use the language of my great-uncle James.

I wish I had been invited to attend the unveiling of my great-grandfather's [Shikellamy's] monument in Sunbury next week, but I guess that the world has forgotten Logan.

Next summer, if I live I hope to visit Logan Valley, where my grandfather resided, and view the scenes that my father loved to talk about.