Portrait of the Oneida Chieftain Shikellamy

Shikellamy was vice regent over all of Pennsylvania's tribes and served as the primary liaison between the colonists and the Six Nations of the Iroquois from 1728 until his death in 1748. He worked to keep the peace, stem the sale of alcohol to his people, and establish a forge to make rifles like the flintlock example in his hand. Working at a time of difficult negotiations between the many different tribes, the English colonists, and the French traders, the chieftain's word was law. The sign of the Oneida was the turtle, seen around the waistline of Shikellamy's clothing in this posthumous portrait.