Ostenaco

Ostenaco
Portrait of Ostenaco by Joshua Reynolds, 1762
Born	c. 1703 United States
Died	c. 1780 (aged 76–77) United States
Nationality	Cherokee
Occupation	War chief

Ostenaco (Ustanakwa, or "Big Head") (also known as Judd's Friend), lived c. 1703 – 1780. He preferred to go by the warrior's title he had earned at any early age, Utsidihi ("Mankiller"), He was known as a great orator and a leading figure in diplomacy with British colonial authorities. Ostenaco was a war chief (skiagusta) of the Cherokee town Tomotley, and had resided previously in Great Tellico. He was probably born in Great Hiwassee, finally migrating later in life to the town of Ultiwa on Ooltewah Creek (in the modern Hamilton County, Tennessee) during the Cherokee–American wars.

During the French and Indian War, Ostenaco at first aided the Colony of Virginia against the French and the Shawnee, traveling over 3,500 miles on foot and by canoe. In 1756, he led 130 Cherokees in a joint Virginia-Cherokee campaign on the frontier of what is now West Virginia. In 1757 and 1758, his war party raided the French stronghold at Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh).

The expeditionary party comprising Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, Sergeant Thomas Sumter, John McCormack (an interpreter), and an unnamed servant, arrived in the Overhill town of Tomotley on December 20, where they were greeted by one of the leading men in the town, Ostenaco, who was visiting from Keowee.

After spending several days in Tomotley as guests of Ostenaco, Timberlake and his interpreter proceeded to the Overhill mother town of Chota, where a number of chiefs had gathered in the town's large councilhouse. Ostenaco gave a speech and ceremonially buried a hatchet in the ground, symbolizing a state of peace between the English and the Cherokee. Afterward, Timberlake took part in a peace ceremony in which he smoked several ceremonial pipes with the gathered chiefs, a practice Timberlake personally found "very disagreeable," but participated without openly complaining.