Bemino Bemino ( " fl . " 1710s – 1780s ) — known as John Killbuck , Sr to white settlers — was a renowned medicine man and war leader of Shawnee and Delaware ( Lenape ) warriors during the French and Indian War ( 1754 – 63 ) . He was a son of Netawatwees , at one time principal chief of the Delaware , and his own son was Gelelemend ( John Killbuck , Jr . ) , a Delaware chief during the American Revolutionary War . Bemino lived with his people in what is now eastern Ohio , but was mostly active in the upper Potomac River watershed in what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia . Biography . Early years . Within the Delaware hierarchy , Bemino ’ s phratry ( clan ) is unclear , but he was a member of either the Turtle or the Turkey phratry . He may have been born or raised in what is now eastern Ohio where his father , a Delaware sub - chief named Netawatwees , had been forced to remove from the Delaware River Valley by white pressure . In any case , by the 1740s and ' 50s Bemino was well acquainted with all the white settler families in the valley of the South Branch Potomac River in what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia . This river and region were known at that time to Indians and whites alike by a Native American name — Wappocomo . Such was the rapport between Bemino and the newly established whites that , shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War ( 1754 ) , one of them — a Mr Peter Casey — hired Bemino to chase down and retrieve a " runaway negro " ( or , by another account , a runaway " Irish servant " ) . In trying to collect his payment , however , he quarreled with Casey , who knocked him to the ground with a cane . ( Bemino long held a grudge and , throughout the subsequent hostilities , attempted without success to find an opportunity to kill Casey . ) At times , Bemino would live among some of the English families , a situation that allowed him to familiarize himself with their habits and assess their resources — knowledge that later proved invaluable when he allied himself with the French as a leader of marauding warrior bands in the region . The French and Indian War . After the outbreak of hostilities at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in Pennsylvania ( May 28 , 1754 ) , Bemino was among those Indian leaders siding with the French against the English . Bemino is said to have led the attack in an ambush ( the " Battle of the Trough " ) of white settlers near Fort Pleasant , in what is now Hardy County , West Virginia , in March or April 1756 . A one or two hour firefight left seven whites ( out of about 18 ) dead as against three Indians ( out of 60 or 70 ) . At around the same time , Bemino and a small band apprehended a Mr . Williams , a settler on Patterson ' s Creek , some 9 miles across Patterson Creek Mountain from Fort Pleasant . After besieging him in his home ( and losing 5 of their party of 7 ) , the Indians managed to kill him and quarter his body , hanging the four parts at the four corners of the log cabin , and impaling his head upon a fence stake at the front door . An engagement known as the Battle of Great Cacapon took place on April 18 , 1756 . A number of years after this incident , Bemino described how he and a band of Indians ( probably composed of both Delawares and Shawnee ) killed two men near Fort Edwards , not far from the Cacapon River in what is now Hampshire County , West Virginia . Deliberately leaving a trail of corn meal , they lay in wait for an ambush along a high stream bank . Captain John Mercer led a band of militia ( said to number either 40 or 100 , depending on the source ) in pursuit . When they passed the concealed Indians , the trap was sprung , and the Indians opened a withering crossfire , killing Mercer and 16 of his men . Survivors were soon chased down and killed , with Bemino claiming that only six men escaped . In 1756 or 1757 , Bemino approached Fort Cumberland , just across the Potomac River in Maryland , with a large warrior force . Agreeing to a parlay , the garrison commander , a Major Livingston , admitted the leaders inside the gates , but detained them there and , assuming that the encounter was a ruse , humiliated them ( perhaps by dressing them in women ' s clothing ) before expelling them from the fort . Bemino and his Delaware and Shawnee warriors attacked the British settler stockades at Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert ( on the South Fork of the South Branch in what is now Pendleton County ) on 27 and 28 April 1758 , respectively . Fort Seybert ( about 12 miles northeast of the present town of Franklin ) was then occupied by about 30 people , apparently only three of which were adult males . After the defenders surrendered , the Indians spared only eleven white lives . According to the son of one of the survivors : They bound ten , whom they conveyed without the fort , and then proceeded to massacre the others in the following manner : They seated them in a row upon a log , with an Indian standing behind each ; and at a given signal , each Indian sunk his tomahawk into the head of his victim : an additional blow or two dispatched them . Later years . In later years , the sons of the aforementioned Peter Casey and Mr . Williams visited the elderly Bemino in the Ohio Territory . By this time he was quite feeble and completely blind . Upon hearing the name of Col . Vincent Williams , his only response was " Your father was a brave warrior " . Upon hearing that the other visitor , Benjamin Casey , was Peter Casey ' s son , he responded : " Your father owes me eight shillings ; will you pay it ? " During this visit , Bemino related many of the details of his exploits which would otherwise have been lost to history for lack of surviving eyewitnesses .