Kekewepelethy

Kekewepelethy (died c. 1808), also known as Captain Johnny, was the principal civil chief of the Shawnees in the Ohio Country during the Northwest Indian War (1786–1795).

He joined the war against the United States around 1780, moving to Wakatomika, a Shawnee town known for its militant defense of the Ohio Country.

Following the Revolutionary War, Kekewepelethy rejected the claims of U.S. officials that the Shawnees had been conquered and had lost their Ohio Country lands.

After the battle, some Shawnees leaders, including Blue Jacket, decided to make peace, signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding what is now southern and eastern Ohio to the United States.

Kekewepelethy refused to sign, and instead retreated to the Detroit region, then still under British control, where he unsuccessfully tried to revive the war effort.

Shawnees of his era belonged to one of five tribal divisions: Kispoko, Chalahgawtha (Chillicothe), Mekoche, Pekowi (Piqua), and Hathawekela.

[2] Around 1780, Kekewepelethy joined the Native war effort against the United States, moving further west to Wakatomika, a Shawnee town on the Mad River near present-day Zanesfield, Ohio.

With Simon Girty interpreting, he said: According to the Lines settled by our Forefathers, the Boundary is the Ohio River, but you are coming upon the ground given to us by the Great Spirit.

[10][12] Although Kekewepelethy was among those who signed, his defiant stance against the Americans was favorably remembered by those who remained committed to defending the Ohio Country.

Later in 1786, Kentucky militiamen invaded Shawnee territory, burning towns and taking captives, including the elderly Moluntha, who was murdered by an American militiaman.

Kekewepelethy responded by trying to reinvigorate the Northwestern Confederacy, recruiting Miamis and Lenapes to aid the Shawnees in resisting American occupation.

He and Buckongahelas, a Lenape chief, traveled to Amherstburg in Upper Canada to meet with U.S. commissioners Benjamin Lincoln, Beverley Randolph, and Timothy Pickering, where they told the Americans that they would only settle for a boundary along the Ohio River.

In subsequent negotiations back at the Maumee, Kekewepelethy's hardline position prevailed, and no agreement was reached between the Confederacy and the Americans.

[21] After the Confederacy was defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, some Shawnees leaders, including Blue Jacket, Black Hoof (Catecahassa), and Red Pole (Musquaconocah), decided to make peace, signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding what is now southern and eastern Ohio to the United States.

[2][22] After the Treaty of Greenville, Kekewepelethy and his followers relocated to Swan Creek in what is now northern Ohio, where they maintained close ties to the British.

In Kekewepelethy's absence, Blue Jacket presented Red Pole, his half-brother, to the Americans as the new Shawnee civil chief.

[23] In November 1796, Blue Jacket and Red Pole traveled to Philadelphia, where they met with President George Washington to discuss Native issues.