Buckongahelas (1725?–May 1805) was a Delaware (Lenape) war leader who led his followers against the United States during the American Revolutionary War and again in the Northwest Indian War; in the latter war he helped win the most devastating military victory ever achieved by American Indians against the United States. Buckongahelas's name was spelled in numerous ways by contemporary chroniclers, including Pukangehela and Pachgantschihilas, and was translated as "Giver of Presents" or "One whose movements are certain." A U.S. official who knew Buckongahelas characterized him as the "George Washington" of the Delaware people. Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Lenape or Lenni-Lenape (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans) were, in the 1600s, loosely organized bands of Native American people practicing small-scale agriculture to augment a largely mobile hunter-gatherer society in the region around the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, and western Long Island Sound. ... The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen North American colonies. ... The Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), often known as Little Turtles War in older reference works, was a war fought between the United States and a large confederation of Native Americans (Indians) for control of the Old Northwest, which ended with a decisive U.S. victory at the Battle... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... George Washington (February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799) was an American planter, political figure, and military leader. ...

Early in the American Revolutionary War, Buckongahelas broke away from the neutral and pro-American Delawares led by White Eyes, and established a town near the Shawnee war leader Blue Jacket. The two men became close allies. White Eyes (c. ... Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah (c. ...

During the war, a number of Delawares who had converted to Christianity lived in dangerously exposed frontier villages run by Moravian missionaries. On 7 May 1781, Buckongahelas advised the Christian Indians at the town of Gnadenhütten to remove further west before the Americans came to kill them. The Christian Indians declined to move, but Buckongahelas's warning was tragically prophetic: nearly 100 Indians (mostly women and children) were executed by American militiamen at the Gnadenhutten massacre on 8 March 1782. Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. ... A Moravian is a Protestant belonging to a religious movement that originated in Moravia, Czech Republic. ... May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... 1781 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Gnadenhutten is a village located on the Tuscarawas River in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. ... The Gnadenhütten massacre (8 March 1782) was a mass murder of nearly 100 Native Americans (mostly women and children) by American militiamen during the American Revolutionary War. ... March 8 is the 67th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (68th in Leap years). ... 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The United States compelled a number of Indian leaders to sign treaties after the Revolutionary War, claiming the Ohio Country by right of conquest. Buckongahelas declined to sign these treaties, and in the late 1780s he joined a Shawnee-led confederacy that won several battles against the Americans (the Northwest Indian War), before ultimately being defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. When the British failed to support the Indian confederacy after Fallen Timbers, Buckongahelas signed the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The Ohio Country, showing the present-day U.S. state boundaries The Ohio Country (sometimes called the Ohio Territory) was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake... The Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between American Indians and the United States for control of the Northwest Territory. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Treaty of Greenville was signed on August 3, 1795 between a coalition of Native Americans (Indians) and the United States following the Native American loss at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. ... 1795 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Buckongahelas spent his final years living with his people on the White River near present-day Muncie, Indiana. His death from smallpox or influenza in May of 1805 was believed by many local Indians to have been the work of witchcraft; a witchhunt followed, leading to the execution of several suspected Delaware witches, and the rise to prominence of the Shawnee prophet and witchhunter Tenskwatawa. The White River is a two-forked river that flows through central and southern Indiana and is the main tributary to the Wabash River. ... Muncie is a city in Delaware County in northeast Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University. ... Tenskwatawa or Elskwatawa (1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader known as the Shawnee Prophet. ...

See also

• Frontier warfare during the American Revolution

// Background Among the Acts of Parliament denounced by the Patriots as Intolerable Acts were the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade Anglo-American settlement west of the Appalachians; and the Quebec Act of 1774, which made provision for the extension of Québecs borders to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. ...

References

• Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
• ———. "Buckongahelas" in American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Weslager, C. A. The Delaware Indians. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1972.
• White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York, 1991.