Conner's marriage to Mekinges earned him a special status among—and perhaps the trust of—the Lenape, which would help to enable his business dealings as well as facilitate his role in the process of indigenous removal.
Mekinges lived with her family until 1812, when she moved with her husband of ten years four miles (6.4 km) south of the town of Noblesville, Indiana, and east of the White River.
[8] Conner was actively involved in the settlement and development of central Indiana and also served as an interpreter for the Treaty of St. Mary's, signed in Ohio in 1818.
[3] Specifically, the treaty stated that the Lenape would cede all claim to land in Indiana and relocate to a territory provided for them west of the Mississippi River.
[4][8] Conner's petition for land was tabled in the House, so it is impossible to determine if his stated motive was genuine or if he made the appeal under false pretenses.
[1] Just a few months after Mekinges and her children left Indiana, William Conner married Elizabeth Chapman—a 17-year-old white woman from Noblesville—on November 30, 1820.
In 1861, his Lenape descendents brought a suit against them, but the claim was "quieted" against the plaintiffs by Judge Laceb B. Smith at the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana on January 6, 1863, leaving Mekinges' children with no part of William Conner's estate.
[4] Mekinges and her family traveled alongside William Marshall and were with him when he established a trading post on the Jack Fork of the Current River.
Although there is no evidence to support their presence in Arkansas, it is possible that Mekinges and her children also accompanied Marshall to the mouth of the Sulphur Fork of the Red River, where he opened a trading post.