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White Eyes

Lenape (Delaware) speaker and principal chief in the Muskingum valley who kept his people neutral early in the Revolution and negotiated the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt, the first written treaty of the United States with a Native nation.

Born c. 1730, Unknown; Wikipedia says western Pennsylvania, but other summaries say nothing is known of his early life
Died November 5, 1778, On the march of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh's army west from Fort Pitt toward the Tuscarawas; the exact place is uncertain (the state marker says near Pittsburgh)

At a glance

Born
c. 1730, Unknown; Wikipedia says western Pennsylvania, but other summaries say nothing is known of his early life source
Died
November 5, 1778, On the march of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh's army west from Fort Pitt toward the Tuscarawas; the exact place is uncertain (the state marker says near Pittsburgh) source
Also known as
Koquethagechton, Koquechagachton, Koquethaqechton, Captain White Eyes
Known as
Native History, Politics, Military

Life story

Koquethagechton, known as White Eyes, was a Lenape leader in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum valleys of eastern Ohio, where he founded White Eyes Town near present West Lafayette in the early 1770s. Speaker of the Delaware council by 1773, he tried to head off Dunmore's War in 1774 and then worked as a peace emissary, and he addressed the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in April 1776. He argued for neutrality in the Revolution against the Wolf leader Captain Pipe, and on September 17, 1778 he, Pipe and John Killbuck signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt, which let an American army cross Lenape land and held out a conditional Native state with a seat in Congress. That November he guided Gen. Lachlan McIntosh's army west and died on November 5; officers reported smallpox, but the Indian agent George Morgan later wrote that American militia had killed him and the death was covered up. Ohio remembers him in White Eyes Township, Coshocton County.

Ohio ties

  • White Eyes Town, near West Lafayette (early 1770s-1778)
    founded the town on a plain about two miles southeast of the state marker Coshocton County · source
  • Tuscarawas valley (1770s)
    lived in the Tuscarawas valley, the setting of David Zeisberger's Moravian missions Tuscarawas County · source
  • Coshocton (Gosch-ach-gunk) (1775-1778)
    Lenape who sided with the United States stayed near Coshocton under White Eyes's leadership Coshocton County · source
  • Fort Laurens, Bolivar (1778)
    McIntosh built the fort in 'friendly Lenape territory' to fulfil the 1778 treaty White Eyes negotiated Tuscarawas County · source

Timeline

  1. 1730 Born about this year; nothing certain is known of his early life. source
  2. 1773 By this year he was Speaker of the Delaware head council. source
  3. 1774 Tried and failed to prevent war between the Shawnee and Virginia, then served as a peace emissary in the talks that ended Dunmore's War. source
  4. 1776 Addressed the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in April. source
  5. 1778 Hosted the Moravian John Heckewelder, who brought George Morgan's message and news of Burgoyne's surrender, and urged the Delaware to stay out of the war. source
  6. 1778 On September 17 signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt with John Killbuck and Captain Pipe, allowing an American army to cross Delaware land toward British Detroit. source
  7. 1778 Joined Gen. Lachlan McIntosh's Detroit campaign as a scout and guide that autumn and died on the march in November. source
  8. 1778 McIntosh's troops built Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas in November-December, the only Continental Army fort in what became Ohio. source
  9. 1779 His son, about eight, was brought to Princeton by a Lenape delegation with Thomas and John Killbuck and placed in Congress's care. source
  10. 1779 A Lenape delegation went to Philadelphia to complain to Congress about the treaty; by late spring Captain Pipe had led a large faction west to fight the Americans. source
  11. 1781 Col. Daniel Brodhead's troops destroyed Lichtenau and the Lenape town at Coshocton in April. source
  12. 1789 His son George Morgan White Eyes, a student at the College of New Jersey, wrote to President Washington in June and July before returning to Ohio. source
  13. 2018 The Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Fort Pitt Museum marked the treaty's 240th anniversary on September 29. source

Stories

A Lenape state on paper

The Treaty of Fort Pitt, signed on September 17, 1778 by White Eyes, John Killbuck and Captain Pipe, is the first written treaty between the United States and a Native nation. Its articles let American troops cross Delaware land toward British Detroit, asked for Delaware warriors when possible, and promised a fort and trade goods. Article 6 guaranteed Delaware lands as bounded by earlier treaties and invited other friendly nations to form a state 'whereof the Delaware nation shall be the head, and have a representation in Congress', but only if Congress approved. It never did. Killbuck later said the written articles did not match what he had been told, and historians argue the Delaware were pressed into signing with a 900-man army ready to march.

Source

George Morgan White Eyes at Princeton

In 1779 a Lenape delegation left White Eyes's young son, about eight, at Princeton with Thomas and John Killbuck as a sign of friendship, and the Continental Congress paid their board and tuition. He lived with the Indian agent George Morgan at Prospect Farm, topped his grammar-school class by 1783, and entered the College of New Jersey around 1785, where he read Virgil, learned Greek and led chapel prayers. In 1787 the faculty ordered him admonished for insolence to a tutor. In the fall of 1788 he learned that both his parents had been killed by Americans, and his studies collapsed. In letters to President Washington in June and July 1789, now held by the National Archives, he asked for work and then resolved to go home to Ohio.

Source

Neutral between two armies

By 1778 White Eyes led the Delaware faction that wanted to stay out of the Revolution, against Captain Pipe of the Wolf clan, whose relatives had been killed by American militia that year. He told the Moravian missionaries he was isolated in the council, and he told his clansmen that if the nation went to war he would lead them and be the first to fall rather than send others. When John Heckewelder arrived from Fort Pitt with George Morgan's message and a newspaper reporting Burgoyne's surrender, White Eyes used the news to argue for neutrality. Pipe agreed to delay a war decision but proposed that Delaware who opposed war be declared enemies of the people. After White Eyes died that November, Killbuck could not hold the nation together.

Source

Named for White Eyes

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12
  • 1 Ohio Historical Marker 6-16, Koquechagachton - Chief White Eyes
    23601 SR 93, west side of OH 93 just south of US 36, near West Lafayette Coshocton County · source
  • 2 Fort Laurens Museum and Park (Ohio Historical Marker 28-79)
    11067 Fort Laurens Road NW, Bolivar Tuscarawas County · source

Ohio places

Where White Eyes was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about White Eyes, and what the record shows.

Often said White Eyes died of smallpox.

The record That was the report given to the Delaware. George Morgan, the Continental Indian agent who knew him, later wrote to Congress that American militia had 'treacherously put to death' White Eyes and that the killing was hidden to keep the Delaware allied. Wikipedia notes he had already had smallpox, which made the official story doubtful; other accounts suggest friendly fire. The state marker says the cause remains open to question. The killer was never named. source

Often said White Eyes was killed near Detroit (or 'in Michigan').

The record Wikipedia's articles repeat this from Morgan's letter, but McIntosh's 1778 army never got near Detroit; it stopped on the Tuscarawas and built Fort Laurens. The Ohio state marker says White Eyes died near Pittsburgh, and a Moravian Church account places his death between Fort Pitt and the Tuscarawas valley. source

Often said The 1778 treaty made the Delaware nation a fourteenth state.

The record Article 6 only invited friendly nations to join a confederation headed by the Delaware 'and have a representation in Congress', and said nothing in it was conclusive until Congress approved. Congress never approved it, and the treaty was buried in committee. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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