Tiloukaikt

Tiloukaikt (also Tilokaikt or Teelonkike) (d.1850) was a Native American leader of the Cayuse tribe in the northwestern United States.

When approached by Presbyterian missionary Marcus Whitman in 1835, Tiloukaikt and other Cayuse leaders consented to the establishment of a mission in the valley.

However, tensions between Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries and the increasing number of white adventurers and settlers in the territory led to misunderstandings and disagreements.

Settlers in the nearby Willamette Valley, led by fundamentalist clergyman Cornelius Gilliam, raised a volunteer militia for a rescue attempt.

A peace commission, headed by Joel Palmer, was established to meet with neighboring tribes in hopes of avoiding an escalation of violence.

However, the hostages were actually saved through the actions of Peter Skene Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, who negotiated and paid for their release.

However, if a real peace was to be established, white settlers demanded that those who had killed Whitman and the other mission residents should be punished.