Captain Pipe (c. 1725? – c. 1818?) ( Lenape), called Konieschquanoheel and also known as Hopocan in Lenape, was an 18th-century Head Peace chief of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape (Delaware) and War Chief 1778+. He succeeded his maternal uncle

Custaloga Custaloga, also known as Packanke, was a chief of the Delaware ( Lenape) tribe in the mid-18th century. He was a member of the Wolf Clan through his mother. Captain Pipe was his nephew and succeeded him as chief. Life Little is known of the earl ...

as chief by 1773.Stephen T. Jackson
In History: The tale of Captain Pipe
''Herald Bulletin'', 4 September 2010, accessed 27 August 2021 Likely born in present-day Pennsylvania, he later migrated with his people into eastern Ohio. Although Hopocan tried to stay neutral during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, after many of his family and people were killed in colonial American raids, he allied with the British. After the war, he moved his people fully into Ohio Country. He made treaties with the Continental Congress to try to protect Lenape land. American settlers continued to encroach on his people and territory. In 1812 he moved with his people westward into present-day

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, where some accounts say he died. By 1821, most of the Lenape removed to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

, which was considered part of

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

. They and other Native Americans were under pressure from the United States to remove from all areas east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. Congress later formalized this policy under the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...

of 1830, signed by President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

Biography

Early life and education

In Lenape culture, people did not share their real names, because it could give spiritual power to enemies. In addition, individuals were often given new names, or nicknames, at different periods of their lives, particularly to mark life passages, such as reaching manhood. ''Konieschquanoheel'' (meaning "Maker of Daylight") was born about 1725 or 1740; this was his real name. His "public" name was ''Hopocan'' (meaning tobacco pipe). Because of the translated meaning and his status as a chief, the British called him Captain Pipe. This name was documented in the colonial historical records. ''Hopocan'' was born into the Wolf Clan of his mother, for the Lenape have a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

kinship system of descent and inheritance. Children take their social status from their mother's family and clan. In this system, his mother's eldest brother was more important in her children's lives in the clan than their biological father, who was always from another clan. Marriages were exogamous, or outside one's clan. The uncle served especially as a male mentor to boys, bringing them into tribal male society. Little is known of Hopocan's early years. He was probably born about 1725 near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. His maternal uncle was Chief

, whom he later succeeded as hereditary chief, according to the matrilineal kinship rules. Captain Pipe likely spent his early years either at Custaloga's Town, along French Creek in Mercer County. He may also have lived at his uncle's other main village, ''Cussewago'', at the present site of Meadville in

Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States: * Crawford County, Arkansas * Crawford County, Georgia * Crawford County, Illinois * Crawford County, Indiana * Crawford County, Iowa * Crawford County, Kansas * Crawford Count ...

Career

The boy received the public name or nickname of ''Hopocan'' (meaning tobacco pipe). Captain Pipe, as the colonists called him, is first noted in historical records in 1759 among the

warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have be ...

s at a conference held at Fort Pitt, July 1759.

Hugh Mercer Hugh Mercer (16 January 1726 – 12 January 1777) was a Scottish-born American military officer and physician who participated in the Seven Years' War and Revolutionary War. Born in Pitsligo, Scotland, he studied medicine in his home country ...

, agent of Sir William Johnson, the chief British Indian agent in the Northeast, noted Captain Pipe among the attendees. Mercer had brought together the Six Nations of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

, as well as the Lenape and

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

, trying to secure their alliance with Great Britain during its

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

with the French (known on the North American front as the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

). The war lasted from 1754 to 1763. Custaloga was known to have moved his band from French Creek into what is now Ohio. There is some evidence that he may have returned to Pennsylvania to the Kuskuskies Towns, on the

Shenango River The Shenango River is a principal tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 100 mi (160 km) long,New Castle. These four villages had earlier been inhabited by Seneca people of the

Iroquois League The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

, but by 1756 they were settled by Lenape displaced from further east during the

. In 1762 the Lenape gave the Moravian

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

Christian Frederick Post Christian Frederick Post (an anglicanization of Christian Friedrich Post) (1710 Polish Prussia - 29 April 1785 Germantown, Pennsylvania) was a missionary of the Moravian Church to the indigenous peoples of the Americas who played a brief but signi ...

permission to build a cabin on the

Tuscarawas River The Tuscarawas River is a principal tributary of the Muskingum River, 129.9 miles (209 km) long, in northeastern Ohio in the United States. Via the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining a ...

at present

Bolivar, Ohio Bolivar (, rhymes with Oliver) is a village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 994 at the 2010 census. Bolivar is also home to Fort Laurens, the only American Revolutionary War-era fort in what is now Ohio. History Sh ...

. Hopocan was given the job of marking out the land to be given to Post. In 1765 the warrior was recorded at another conference at Fort Pitt, which about 600 chiefs and warriors attended; numerous women and children accompanied them. In 1768 he again met in a conference at Fort Pitt, held by

George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...

, a sub-agent of Sir William Johnson, British Indian Agent of the northeast and based in central New York. This meeting gathered more than 1,000 Iroquois, Lenape, Shawnee,

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...

, and

Mohegan The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...

together following the British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War. Britain proposed an Indian state to be reserved to Native Americans west of the Appalachians, and proclaimed it as off-limits to Anglo-American colonists. But the British colonial governments were unable to enforce restrictions against Anglo-American settlers in this area, who were determined to go to new lands. By 1773, Captain Pipe succeeded ''Custaloga'' as chief of the Lenape Wolf Clan.

Revolutionary War

During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, Captain Pipe tried to remain neutral; he refused to take up arms against the rebels even after General

Edward Hand Edward Hand (31 December 1744 – 3 September 1802) was an Irish soldier, physician, and politician who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of general, and later was a member of several Pennsyl ...

killed his mother, brother, and a few of his children during a military campaign in 1778."Konieschquanoheel"
''Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History'', 1999-2011, accessed 29 January 2011 Failing to distinguish among the Native American groups, Hand had attacked the neutral Lenape while trying to reduce the Indian threat to settlers in the Ohio Country, because other tribes, such as the Shawnee, had allied with the British. In 1778 Captain Pipe was with

White Eyes White Eyes, named ''Koquethagechton'' (c. 1730 – 5 November 1778), was Chief Sachem of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, or Captain Grey Eyes al. S ...

and Killbuck, contemporary Lenape leaders of the Turkey Clan, when they signed the first treaty between the Continental Congress and Native peoples. Later that same year, General

Lachlan McIntosh Lachlan McIntosh (March 17, 1725 – February 20, 1806) was a Scottish American military and political leader during the American Revolution and the early United States. In a 1777 duel, he fatally shot Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaratio ...

, the American commander at Fort Pitt, requested permission from the Lenape to march through their territory to attack

Fort Detroit Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a fort established on the north bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and the Italian Alphonse de Tonty in 1701. In the 18th century, Fre ...

, which was held by the British. Captain Pipe and other Lenape chiefs agreed, based on the Americans' building a fort to protect the Lenape from the British military and European-American settlers. In response, McIntosh had Fort Laurens built near the Delaware villages in eastern Ohio. He demanded their Ohio Country warriors assist the Americans in capturing Fort Detroit, and threatened them with extermination if they refused. Believing that the Americans could not protect them from the British and their native allies, Captain Pipe and many other Lenape bands began to reach out to the British as allies. Also in 1778, Pipe and the members of his tribe who supported war, departed from the Tuscarawas area and relocated to the

Walhonding River The Walhonding River is a principal tributary of the Muskingum River,Columbia Gazettee ...

, about fifteen miles above the present site of

Coshocton, Ohio Coshocton is a city in and the county seat of Coshocton County, Ohio, United States approximately 63 mi (102 km) ENE of Columbus. The population was 11,216 at the 2010 census. The Walhonding River and the Tuscarawas River meet in ...

. In 1781 Colonel

Daniel Brodhead Daniel Brodhead (October 17, 1736 – November 15, 1809) was an American military and political leader during the American Revolutionary War and early days of the United States. Early life Brodhead was born in Marbletown, New York, the son o ...

attacked and destroyed this village, ending Pipe's neutrality. Captain Pipe became the leader of Lenape who supported the British and moved his people to the Tymochtee Creek near the

Sandusky River The Sandusky River ( wyn, saandusti; sjw, Potakihiipi ) is a tributary to Lake Erie in north-central Ohio in the United States. It is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Ma ...

. This village became known as "Pipe's Town." Present-day Crawford in

Wyandot County Wyandot County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,900. Its county seat is Upper Sandusky. It was named for the Wyandot Indians, who lived here before and after ...

developed near it. Captain Pipe spent the remainder of the war resisting American expansion into the Ohio Country. In 1782, Pipe helped defeat the Crawford Expedition, headed by

William Crawford William Crawford may refer to: Entertainment * William Broderick Crawford (1911–1986), American film actor * Bill Crawford (cartoonist) (1913–1982), American editorial cartoonist * William L. Crawford (1911–1984), U.S. publisher and editor ...

. Seeking vengeance for the

Gnadenhutten Massacre The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians (primarily Lenape and Mohican) by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania, under the command of David Williamson, on March 8, ...

, in which nearly 100 Lenape were killed, the warriors marked Crawford for death by painting his face black after capturing him in battle. When they conducted

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

torture of Crawford before killing him, American witnesses say the soldier begged

Simon Girty Simon Girty (November 14, 1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American-born frontiersman, soldier and interpreter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who served as a liaison between the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. H ...

, a Loyalist interpreter, to shoot him. Girty had been taken captive and adopted by the Seneca as a boy, becoming assimilated. He knew he would likely be killed if he intervened in the ritual, but he was strongly criticized by American survivors for letting Crawford be tortured.

After the Revolution

Captain Pipe continued to resist white settlement of the Ohio Country (which by then the United States called the Northwest Territory). In 1788 when settlers landed at what is now

Marietta, Ohio Marietta is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, northeast of Parkersburg, West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, Ma ...

, they found Captain Pipe and about seventy warriors encamped in the area. At that time General

Josiah Harmar Josiah Harmar (November 10, 1753August 20, 1813) was an officer in the United States Army during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He was the senior officer in the Army for six years and seven months (August 1784 to Ma ...

described him as a "manly old fellow, and much more of a gentleman than the generality of the frontier people." By this time he was being called "Old Pipe." According to the most reliable accounts, Captain Pipe was then about forty-eight years of age. During this time, he also resided at "Birds Run" and "Indian Camp", communities served by Ohio State Route 658, and "Flatridge", all three villages about 10 miles NW of present-day

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. The Lenape held many ceremonies at these sites, and their artifacts have been found in archeological excavations at those locations. Captain Pipe was believed to have last visited around 1800. In 1791, Captain Pipe participated in the battle that ended with St. Clair's defeat, and is said to have “slaughtered white men until his arm was weary with the work.” He was likely also present at the

Battle of Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Native American tribes affiliated with the Northwestern Confederacy and their British allies, against the nascent United State ...

. Scholars think that between 1793 and 1795, Hopocan made his headquarters at Jerometown, Ohio. In his later years, he resided with his people on the upper branches of the

Mohican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, who ...

, the head branches of the

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

, the

Vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is v ...

and the Cuyahoga rivers, all in Ohio. In 1808-09 early white settlers to the area of what is now Jeromesville in Ashland County, on the Jerome Fork of the

Mohican River The Mohican River is a principal tributary of the Walhonding River, about long, in north-central Ohio in the United States. Via the Walhonding, Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area o ...

, found Lenape people living at the old

village of Johnstown. (This was about three-fourths of a mile southwest of the present-day Jeromesville). The home of Old Captain Pipe was located nearby, as reported in stories of the settlers and the Lenape, who said he lived there until 1812. By the 1810s and 1820s, Captain Pipe realized his people had little chance against the Americans and began to negotiate treaties with the United States government. The pioneer settlers also violated the new agreements, moving onto land set aside for the Lenape. In the spring of 1812, Old Captain Pipe and his people removed westward again. Some reports say they lived near present-day

Orestes In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; grc-gre, Ὀρέστης ) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness an ...

Madison County, Indiana Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. The 2020 census states the population is standing at 130,129. The county seat since 1836 has been Anderson,Harden (1874), p. 23 one of three incorporated cities within the county. Madiso ...

, but others refute that. The

Treaty of St. Mary's The Treaty of St. Mary's may refer to one of six treaties concluded in fall of 1818 between the United States and Natives of central Indiana regarding purchase of Native land. The treaties were *Treaty with the Wyandot, etc. *Treaty with the Wy ...

in 1818 gave the tribes three years before having to remove from Indiana to Kansas. They departed peacefully in 1821. Chief Pipe was said to have died around 1818 near Orestes and is supposedly buried there. Other reports claim that he removed to Canada and died there. Captain Pipe had a son, also known as Captain Pipe, who signed many treaties and moved with the Lenape to Kansas.David Dwiggins, "Orestes Indiana History - Captain Pipe"
, n.d. (circa 2000?)

References

Bibliography

* Baughman, Abraham J. (1837-1913): "Pipe's Cliff", ''Ohio Archæological and Historical Society Publications:'' Volume 20

911 911 or 9/11 may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende * November 9 Numbers * 91 ...

pp. 253–254.