Queen Alliquippa (died December 23, 1754) was a leader of the Seneca tribe of American Indians during the early part of the 18th century. She may have been born in New York in 1685 but some stories have her younger, being born in 1701.
How she came to lead her tribe of about 30 families is also uncertain but by the 1730's she was a respected ruler. Many communities along the Monongahela, Youghiogheny and Ohio Rivers have legends of her camping nearby. By the 1740s, she was the leader of a band of Mingo Seneca living along the three rivers (the Ohio River, the Allegheny River, and the Monongahela River) near what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 1753, she and her band were living at the junction of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers near the present site of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
In January of 1754, a 20 year-old Major George Washington was returning from a failed negotiation with the French at what is now Erie to find that Queen Aliquippa was angry that this British emissary had neglected to pay her a visit on his way north. Washington visited her encampment at McKeesport.:
"As we intended to take horse here [at Frazer's Cabin on the mouth of Turtle Creek], and it required some time to find them, I went up about three miles to the mouth of the Youghiogheny to visit Queen Alliquippa, who had expressed great concern that we passed her in going to [Fort LeBouef]. I made her a present of a match-coat and a bottle of rum, which latter was thought much the better present of the two."
Queen Alliquippa was a key ally of the British leading up to the French and Indian War. Alliquippa, her son Kanuksusy, and warriors from her band of Mingo Seneca traveled to Fort Necessity to assist George Washington but did not take an active part in the Battle of the Great Meadows on July 3-4, 1754.
After the British defeat at the Battle of the Great Meadows and the evacuation of Fort Necessity, Alliquippa moved her band to the Aughwick Valley of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (present day Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County) for safety. She died there on December 23, 1754.
