In June 1923, at the Conrad Weiser estate in Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania, a racist fraternal group, the Improved Order of Red Men, erected a half-naked statue which was supposed to be a representation of Shikellamy ( ? -1748), an Oneida chief.
The plaque on a rock which supports the statue reads as follows:
SKEKILAMMY BOULDER
ERECTED BY
IMPROVED ORDER OF RED MEN
DEGREE OF POCAHONTAS
of BERKS COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA 1927
Note the spelling of Shikellamy on the plaque. His name has also been found as Shekellamy.
The depiction of Shikellamy on this statue is quite different from the painting of him which can be found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and from the portrait of him found in Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, published in 1889.
On June 4, 1930, the Reading Times reported on the dedication of the statue:
COMPLETE STATUE OF INDIAN CHIEF AT WEISER PARK
Shekilammy Raises Bronze Arm in Ancient Peace Gesture
DEDICATION JUNE 14
Governor Fisher Scheduled to Speak at Red Men’s Celebration
Shekilammy, his mighty features set in eternal bronze, yesterday once more raised his right hand toward the heaven in the Indian sign of peace. Two hundred years ago, Shekilammy, great chief of the Iroquois Indians, raising his hand in the same gesture, brought peace to the white men in a day when massacre and bloody warfare were common.
On a gentle slope in Weiser Park, workmen yesterday finished the erection of the statue donated to the park by the Improved Order of Red Men and Degree of Pocahontas at a cost of $3,500. With Governor Fisher scheduled as the principal speaker, the monument will be unveiled at elaborate ceremonies June 14 [1930].
Council Fires to Burn
Charles E. Pass, Harrisburg postmaster and past national president of the Red Men, will also make an address. Council fires will burn in a tepee village to be erected for the exercises and the Wyanet Degree team will stage a public initiation.
Shekilammy’s statue is a symbol of the peace he brought to his people and the whites. Scantily clothed after the custom of the race, his muscular figure stands poised erect as he raises his right hand in the peace sign. He carries in his left hand the calumet, the ceremonial peace pipe of the North American Indian. His head is slightly drawn back, and a breeze seems to move through the coarse braids of hair reaching halfway down to his waist. In his rough, stern features one seems able to catch at a glance, traits of nobility, courage, and friendship. A 10-ton boulder, eight feet high, supports the figure. It was brought from an old Indian trail near Newmanstown which Shekilammy himself once used.
Was Iroquois Chief
The members of the Red Men pour eulogies on the name of the Indian chief for his part in the early history of the country. As chief of the Iroquois, a league of six powerful Indian tribes, including the Mohawk, of Mohican Indians, the Onondagas, the Cayukas, the Senecas, the Oneidas and the Tuscarroras he headed what has been called, the most powerful Indian confederacy in America. Because the Iroquois sided with the English against the French in the French and Indian War, the English were able to win the conflict with the result that an English-speaking nation, alive with the germs of democracy was brought into existence.
Shekilammy welcomed Christian missionaries and his friendship with County Zinzindorf, Moravian missionary, is historical. With Conrad Weiser he framed numerous treaties between the red and white men, some of which were made at what is now Womelsdorf.
Were Near Sunbury
The council house of the Iroquois was along the Oswego River in New York, but Shekilammy and his Cayuga tribesmen spent much of their existence on the Susquehanna River near Sunbury. His name as chief of the Iroquois meant, “the heart of the nation.” He passed through Reading many times to trail with Weiser to Philadelphia. He died in Shamokin in 1849.
A photo of the statue was included with the Reading Times article. The caption reads:
Honoring Shekilammy, peaceful chieftain of the powerful Iroquois confederacy and close friend of Conrad Weiser, a $3,500 bronze statue was erected on a boulder in Weiser Park yesterday. A gift of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Degree of Pocahontas in Berks County, the memorial will be unveiled on June 14 [1930] with Governor Fisher scheduled as the principal speaker.
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News article from Newspapers.com.
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