Skenandoa
Oneida chief
John Skenandoa (; c. 1706 – March 11, 1816), also called Shenandoah () among other forms, was an elected chief (a so-called "pine tree chief") of the Oneida. He was born into the Iroquoian-speaking Conestoga, but was adopted into the Oneida of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. When he later accepted Christianity, he was baptized as "John", taking his Oneida name Skenandoa as his surname. Based on a possible reconstruction of his name in its original Oneida, he is sometimes called "Oskanondonha" in modern scholarship. His tombstone bears the spelling Schenando ().
During the colonial years, Skenandoa supported the English against the French in the Seven Years' War. Later, during the American Revolutionary War, he supported the colonials and led a force of 250 Oneida and Tuscarora warriors in western New York in their support. He met George Washington, who wrote at least one letter of recommendation for him.
A longtime friend of the minister Samuel Kirkland, a founder of Hamilton College, his request to be buried next to Kirkland was granted. In the funeral procession at the death of Skenandoa together were Oneida, students and officers from Hamilton College, Kirkland's widow and her family, and many citizens of Clinton, New York.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7534542. VIAF identifies the subject as 78400490. The Library of Congress control number is no98095798. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1706 and 1816.
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This entry incorporates text from “Skenandoa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.