Congregational minister to the Iroquois Confederacy and negotiator of the Oneida Alliance with the colonists during the American Revolution (1775–83).

While still a student at Princeton, Kirkland began his wilderness treks on snowshoes to preach to the Indians. Gradually he mastered several Indian languages and became a trusted friend of the Tuscarora and the Oneida Indians. During the war he served as chaplain to colonial troops and was commended by General George Washington (Washington, George) for his diplomacy with the Indians. He was rewarded for these services by a congressional land grant (1785), augmented in 1788 by a joint grant from the Indians and the state of New York, where he founded the Hamilton Oneida Academy for young Indian and white men in the new town of Kirkland. (In 1812 the school became Hamilton College.)