Portrait of Syacust Ukah (Ostenaco)

Ostenaco, a Cherokee warrior and diplomat, posed for this portrait by English artist Joshua Reynolds in London in 1762. “Syacust Ukah” is probably Reynolds’ misunderstanding of the Cherokee word “Skiagusta,” meaning chief—Ostenaco’s translator had died on the passage to England.

During the Seven Years’ War, Ostenaco allied with the British in several military actions in the western part of Virginia, including Andrew Lewis’s unsuccessful Sandy Creek Expedition in 1756. Despite poor communication between the British and the Cherokee that nearly led Ostenaco to abandon the war, Ostenaco maintained the alliance and his war party participated in the successful 1758 raid of Fort Duquesne.

From late 1758 to 1761 the relationship between the British and Cherokee disintegrated after British colonists murdered several of their Cherokee allies, leading to reprisals and escalations that ended in the 1761 destruction of fifteen Cherokee towns and fifteen thousand acres of crops. Ostenaco led peace negotiations with Virginia governor Francis Fauquier. After reaching a peace agreement with Fauquier in 1761, Ostenaco traveled with two Cherokee companions to London to meet King George III. The Cherokee inspired a great deal of public curiosity during their visit and were treated simultaneously as respected allies and curiosities. In 1768 Ostenaco participated in the negotiations over the Virginia boundary at the Treaty of Hard Labor. Ostenaco remained an ally to the British through the American Revolution but did not participate militarily.