As Long as the Grass Grows · Episode 2 of 15 · 47 min
The First Treaty the United States Ever Broke
The 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt with the Lenape, the first the United States signed with a Native nation, even offered a Native-led fourteenth state. Within four years the promise was ash: the pro-American leader White Eyes was dead, very likely murdered, protection never came, and militia killed ninety-six unarmed Christian Lenape at Gnadenhutten.
Who's who
- White EyesLenape chief and leading advocate of alliance with the Americans
- Captain PipeLenape war captain more skeptical of the alliance
- John Killbuck Jr.Lenape chief who succeeded to pro-American leadership
- Andrew LewisVirginia general and U.S. treaty commissioner
- Thomas LewisVirginia surveyor and second U.S. commissioner
- Lachlan McIntoshFort Pitt commander on whose expedition White Eyes died
- Daniel BrodheadColonel who destroyed Coshocton but spared Moravian villages
- George MorganU.S. agent who later said White Eyes was murdered
Where it happens
- Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaSite of the first treaty
- Gnadenhutten, OhioMoravian mission village where 96 Christian Lenape were killed in 1782
- Coshocton, OhioLenape town destroyed in 1781
Timeline
- September 17, 1778The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed, the first U.S. treaty with a Native nation
- November 1778White Eyes dies guiding McIntosh's expedition; smallpox is reported
- April 19, 1781Brodhead's expedition destroys Coshocton
- March 8, 1782Pennsylvania militia kill 96 unarmed Christian Lenape at Gnadenhutten
Still debated
Whether White Eyes died of smallpox or was murdered is unresolved; Morgan's account is later and not eyewitness. Historians also debate whether the fourteenth-state clause was a serious offer or a wartime inducement, and whether the Lenape fully understood the terms.