During the American Revolutionary War, the Lenni Lenape bands (also called Delaware) of the Ohio Country, both Munsee- and Unami-speaking, were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the conflict.

Years earlier, many Lenape had migrated west to Ohio from their territory on the mid-Atlantic coast to try to escape colonial encroachment, as well as pressure from Iroquois tribes based around the Great Lakes and western New York to the north.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, the Lenape villages lay between the opposing sides, which both had western frontier strongholds: The rebel American colonists' military had an outpost at Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), while the British with their Native American allies were based around Fort Detroit, Michigan.

Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American colonials and moved to the northwest, closer to Fort Detroit, where they settled on the Scioto and Sandusky rivers.

Those Lenape sympathetic to the Colonists remained at Coshocton, and their leaders, including White Eyes, signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt with the revolutionaries in 1778.

Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the Moravian mission villages unmolested since they were peaceful and neutral.

Brodhead's having to restrain the militia from attacking the Moravian villages was a reflection of the brutal nature of frontier warfare.

In February 1782, more than 150 were allowed to return to their old Moravian villages (such as Gnadenhutten, Salem and Shoenbrunn) to harvest the crops and collect stored food they had been forced to leave behind.

[28] After pressing on to the corn fields, the Pennsylvania militiamen acted friendly with the Moravian Christian Indians to gain their trust.

[28] The Moravian Christian Lenape fed the American militiamen, who falsely promised them that they would take them to Fort Pitt, where they would be safe.

After the Indians were told of the American militia's vote, they requested time to prepare for death and spent the night praying to God and singing hymns.

The American militia tied the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts.

Refusing to take part, some of the militiamen "wrung their hands—and calling God to witness that they were innocent of the blood of these harmless Christian Indians, they withdrew to some distance from the scene of the slaughter.

"[13]An account of the Moravian Martyrs recalled:[14] One after another, men, women, and children, were led out to a block prepared for the dreadful purpose; and, being commanded to sit down, the axe of the butcher, in the hands of the infuriate demons, clave their skulls.

One of these men stated, that when he saw the incarnate fiends lead a pretty little girl, about twelve years of age, to the fatal block, and heard her plead for her life, in the most piteous accents, till her innocent voice was hushed in death, he felt a faintness come over him, and could no longer stand the heart-sickening scene.

The dreadful work of human slaughter continued till every prayer, and moan, and sigh was hushed in the stillness of death.

There lay, in undistinguished confusion, gashed and gory, in that cellar, where they were thrown by their butchers, nearly one hundred murdered Christian Indians, hurried to an untimely grave by those who had but two days before sworn to protect them.

The plunder, which needed 80 horses to carry, included everything the people had held: furs for trade, pewter, tea sets, and clothing.

[34][35] The descendants of both Jacob and Ester, the children of Israel Welapachtshechen (who was martyred during Gnadenhutten massacre), make up the majority of the Christian Munsee tribe in Kansas today.

When General George Washington heard about the massacre, he ordered American soldiers to avoid being captured alive, as he feared what the hostile Lenape would do to their captives.

Washington's close friend William Crawford was captured while leading an expedition against Lenape at Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

[41] In 1810 Shawnee chief Tecumseh reminded future President William Henry Harrison, "You recall the time when the Jesus Indians of the Delawares lived near the Americans, and had confidence in their promises of friendship, and thought they were secure, yet the Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus?

"[42] In 1889, future president Theodore Roosevelt called the atrocity "a stain on frontier character that the lapse of time cannot wash away.