White Eyes, named Koquethagechton (c. 1730 – November 5, 1778), was Chief Sachem of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, or Captain Grey Eyes al. Sir William, his given name in Lenape was rendered in many spelling variations in colonial records.

By 1773 he was Speaker of the Delaware Head Council and known as one of the most important councilors.

Migration and career

After the war, when European colonists began settling near the Lenape villages around Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania, the Native Americans moved further west to Muskingum in the Muskingum River valley in present-day eastern Ohio. By this time, many Lenape had converted to Christianity under the influence of Moravian missionaries and lived in villages led by these missionaries. The missionary towns also moved to Muskingum, so that the Lenape, both Christian and non-Christian, could stay together. Though not a Christian, White Eyes ensured that the Christian Lenape remained members of the larger native community.

Marriage and family

After becoming a chief, White Eyes married Rachel Doddridge (d. 1788), a young English colonist who had been taken captive as a 5-year-old child during a Lenape raid and adopted into the Lenape people, becoming fully assimilated. They had at least one son, named George Morgan White Eyes.

Town in Ohio

White Eyes established his own town, known by the colonists as White Eyes' Town, near the Lenape capital of Coshocton, Ohio. By 1773 White Eyes served as Speaker of the Delaware Head Council, an important position and indication of his high reputation in the tribe.

Legacy and honors

  • White Eyes Township in Coshocton County, Ohio was named after the chief as a tribute to his leadership and building an alliance with the revolutionaries.

See also

  • Gnadenhutten massacre
  • Frontier warfare during the American Revolution
  • Muskingum (village)

References

Further reading

  • Barrett, Carole, Harvey Markowitz, and R. Kent Rasmussen, eds. American Indian Biographies, Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2005.
  • Booth, Russell H. The Tuscarawas Valley in Indian Days: 1750–1797. Cambridge, Ohio, 1994.
  • Calloway, Colin. The American Revolution in Indian Country. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  • Doddridge, Joseph. Notes and the Settlement and the Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763–1783, inclusive, together with a review of the State of Society and Manners of the First Settlers of the Western Country, reprint, General Books LLC, 2010.
  • Dowd, Gregory Evans. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1992.
  • Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
  • 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.
  • Text of the 1778 treaty
  • "White Eyes", Ohio History Central
  • Historical marker: White Eyes, Ohio Channel