Buckongahelas Buckongahelas ( c . 1720 – May 1805 ) was a regionally and nationally renowned Lenape chief , councilor and warrior . He was active from the days of the French and Indian War ( Seven Years ' War ) through the Northwest Indian Wars , after the United States achieved independence and settlers encroached on territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio River . He became involved in the Western Confederacy of mostly Algonquian - speaking peoples , who were seeking to repel American settlers . The chief led his Lenape band from present - day Delaware westward , eventually to the White River area of present - day Muncie , Indiana . One of the most powerful war chiefs on the White River , Buckongahelas was respected by the Americans as a chief , although he did not have the position to do political negotiations . Early life and education . Buckongahelas was born in present - day Delaware to Lenape parents . The British colonists called the people the Delaware , after the river , which was the heart of their territory . The Algonquian - speaking Lenape lived throughout the mid - Atlantic area . " Buckongahelas " in the Lenape language means a " Giver of Presents . " He was also known as " Pachgantschihilas " and " Petchnanalas , " meaning a " fulfiller " or " one who succeeds in all he undertakes . " Marriage and family . Buckongahelas married as a young man and started his family . Under pressure from colonial settlers , he began to move his band westward . He was believed to have lived some time with his people in what is now Buckhannon in Upshur County , West Virginia . His son Mahonegon was killed there in June 1773 by Captain William White , a native of Frederick County , Virginia . Local legend states that the current Upshur County Courthouse was built over the grave of Mahonegon . Local legend suggests Buckongahelas took revenge on White after trailing his son ' s killer for a period of nine years ( 1773 – 1782 ) . The captain was killed March 8 , 1782 within sight of Bush Fort in the vicinity of the Buckhannon River . But , historic documentation places Buckongahelas in Ohio by 1781 , as he was moving his band west to escape European - American encroachment . American Revolutionary War . During the American Revolutionary War , Buckongahelas led his followers against the Continentals . He broke away from the neutral and pro - American Lenape led by White Eyes . He took his band west to establish a town near the war chief Blue Jacket of the Shawnee . The two men became close allies . During the war years , a number of Lenape who had converted to Christianity were living in frontier villages run by Moravian missionaries . In April 1781 , at the Ohio village of Gnadenhütten , Buckongahelas warned the Lenape that an American militia from Pennsylvania was likely to execute any Indians in their path and would not pay attention to whether they were Christians . He urged the Lenape to follow him further west away from the encroaching colonists . Moving westward " from the rising sun , " the people could live where the land was good and his warriors would protect them . The Delaware did not heed his words . John Heckewelder , a Moravian missionary , wrote in his account that Buckongahelas ' oration to the Christian Indians was told " with ease and an eloquence not to be imitated . " He continued , " Eleven months after this speech was delivered by this prophetic chief , ninety - six of these same Christian Indians , about sixty of them women and children , were murdered at the place where these very words had been spoken , by the same men he had alluded to , and in the same manner that he had described . " On March 8 , 1782 , state militia attacked and killed the Lenape in what is known as the Gnadenhütten massacre . Post - war tensions . After the Revolutionary War , the United States claimed the Ohio Country by right of conquest through its defeat of Great Britain . In the late 1780s , Buckongahelas joined a Shawnee - led confederacy to try to repel the American settlers who had begun migrating west of the Appalachian Mountains , using the Ohio River to penetrate the territory . They won several battles against the Americans in the Northwest Indian Wars . Buckongahelas led his warriors in helping to win the most devastating military victory ever achieved by Native Americans in the United States , in 1791 against General Arthur St . Clair , who lost 600 troops . The Delaware described Buckongahelas as their own George Washington . Standing 5 feet , 10 inches tall , he was strong with powerful muscles and was said to resemble the statesman Benjamin Franklin . The confederacy were finally defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 . The British failed to support the Indian confederacy after this battle , and Buckongahelas signed the Treaty of Greenville on August 3 , 1795 . By this treaty , his band and other Lenape ceded much land in Pennsylvania and Ohio to the United States . At times , competing tribes tried to control the lands and villages , and it was not clear that the chiefs who signed the treaties had authority over the lands they were ceding . On June 7 , 1803 , Buckongahelas signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne in Indiana ; the US set new boundaries for the Lenape and other nations . They also ceded salt springs . Algonquian tribes ceded large land tracts to the United States . Lastly , he signed the Treaty of Vincennes on August 18 , 1804 , in Vincennes , Indiana . The Lenape ceded lands between the Ohio and Wabash rivers . The treaty helped open the Ohio and Indiana territories to European - American settlement . Not able to read and write , Buckongahelas made " X " signatures on the three treaties . Buckongahelas spent his final years living with his people on the White River near present - day Muncie , Indiana . He died in May 1805 at the age of 85 from smallpox or influenza . Many local Native Americans thought the epidemics of fatal illnesses to be related to witchcraft , as their traditional remedies and medicine men had no effect on the course of the diseases . They conducted a witch - hunt and executed several Lenape suspected of witchcraft . The conditions of defeat and despair were the grounds for the rise of the Shawnee prophet " Tenskwatawa , " who promised renewed power for the American Indians against the European Americans . His brother Tecumseh became an influential chief leading a new Indian confederacy against the Americans in the early 19th century .