White Eyes

White Eyes, named Koquethagechton (c. 1730 – 5 November 1778), was Chief Sachem[1] of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution.

[4] Rachel had been living with her father Philip Doddridge and family at a farm on Chartier's Creek near Statler's Fort (Washington County, Pennsylvania).

By 1773 White Eyes served as Speaker of the Delaware Head Council, an important position and indication of his high reputation in the tribe.

White Eyes unsuccessfully attempted to prevent what would become Lord Dunmore's War in 1774, fought primarily between the Shawnee and Virginia colonists.

Two years later he completed an alliance of the Delaware with the United States by a treaty signed in 1778 at Fort Pitt.

The treaty provided for the Lenape to serve as guides for the Americans when they moved through the Ohio Country to strike at their British and Indian enemies to the north, in and around Detroit.

In early November 1778, White Eyes joined an American expedition under General Lachlan McIntosh as a guide and negotiator.

[2] Years later, George Morgan, a US Indian agent, trader, and former close associate of White Eyes, wrote a letter to Congress claiming that the chief had been "treacherously put to death" by American militia in Michigan.

[2] (Morgan had helped negotiate with Native Americans in the Fort Pitt area, so was closely involved in these matters.)