Due to undifferentiated American attacks against the Lenape during the war, chiefs of other clans switched to ally with the British.
After being pushed out as principal chief, Gelelemend led an American attack on a major Lenape town.
Gelelemend was born near the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, son of Bemino (John Killbuck Sr.) and his wife.
Under the matrilineal kinship system of the Lenape, Gelemend was born into his mother's Turtle clan, which had responsibility for providing hereditary chiefs for the tribe.
By early 1776, the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger recorded that Gelelemend had been "designated" as the successor to his paternal grandfather Netawatwees, who was thought to be close to 100 years old.
Only after the death of White Eyes later that year, who was murdered on November 5, 1778, by an American militia officer, did Gelelemend become principal chief of the Lenape.
Following indiscriminate attacks by Continentals against the Lenape, bands led by Captain Pipe and Buckongahelas broke away from the pro-American leadership of Gelelemend.
At the baptism ceremony, he took the name William Henry, supposedly to honor a man who had rescued him during the French and Indian War.