Netawatwees Lenape (abt. 1686 - abt. 1776)

Born about 1686 in Lower Delaware River Valley

Descendants

Died about 31 Oct 1776 at about age 90 in Pittsburgh, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

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Biography

Netawatwees Lenape was born in 1686^[1] in the Lower Delaware River Valley< the only known child of Nutimus and Unknown Lenape Lenape.

He married Delaware Lenape Woman Unknown. She bore him four known children, one son and three daughters:^{[citation needed]}

1. Unknown Lenape
2. Bemino Lenape
3. Indian Maiden Lenape
4. Journeycake Netawatwees.

On 31 October 1776, when he was about ninety years old, Netawatwees died of unknown causes in Pittsburgh, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Netawatwees -- also called "Newcomer" by Anglo-Americans -- was born around 1686. He eventually became the leader of the turtle clan of the Lenape (Delaware) in the Ohio Country. The Lenape consisted of three separate clans: the turtle clan, the turkey clan, and the wolf clan. Many Lenape believed that the turtle clan was the most important. Of the three animals that represented the different clans, only the turtle could survive on both land and in water. The turtle represented the entire earth. As chief of the turtle clan, Newcomer was the most powerful and influential member of the Lenape nation. He became chief of the turtle clan circa 1757. In 1759, Netawatwees established Gekelmukpechunk. Known as Newcomerstown to white settlers, this village was located east of modern-day Coshocton, Ohio, and became an important Lenape village in the Ohio Country.

Both during and following the French and Indian War, Netawatwees tried to form alliances with the British. The British favored such alliances during the war and afterwards to improve their involvement in the fur trade. But they failed to come to the Lenapes' aid in 1762, when a smallpox epidemic struck the Ohio Country. Netawatwees and his followers began to turn away from the British. Newcomer became a follower of Neolin, a American Indian prophet who encouraged American Indians in the Ohio Country and regions west to forsake white customs and European goods. Neolin's ideas also influenced Pontiac, who led a rebellion against the British beginning in 1763. Newcomer supported Pontiac's actions.

During the early 1770s, Netawatwees welcomed the arrival of missionaries, including David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the Ohio Lenape to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions in the Ohio Country, including Gnadenhutten, Lichtenau, and Schoenbrunn. Netawatwees hoped that the missionaries would help the Lenape (Delaware) overcome an epidemic that was passing through the population. The disease eventually ran its course. The Moravians remained in the Ohio Country actively seeking converts. The missionaries asked that the Lenape leave behind all of their traditional customs and ways of life. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so, and resented the Moravian missionaries' active assimilationist aims. The Lenape became a divided people during the 1770s. This was even true for Netawatwees's family. His own grandson, Killbuck, resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio Country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Netawatwees's grandson, Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Lenape of a warrior who could aid in halting further Anglo-American settlement of Lenape land. While Netawatwees welcomed the missionaries, he never converted to Christianity. The Lenape remained divided even after Netawatwees's death in October 1776.^[2],^[3]

From Wikipedia:

Netawatwees (c. 1686–1776) was a Delaware (Lenape) chief of the Unami, or Turtle, subtribe. His name, meaning "skilled advisor," is spelled in a variety of ways in colonial records. Depending on the language of the recorder, it was transliterated as Netawatwees, Netahutquemaled, Netodwehement, and Netautwhalemund. In English, he was known as the Newcomer.

During the French and Indian War, he led his band to present-day Ohio and the confluence of the Tuscarawas River with the Muskingum River, where he was chief of the village Gekelukpechink. Later he moved with the Lenape to the village of Coshocton, a center of their settlement on the Tuscarawas. He signed the Fort Pitt treaty with Continental/United States forces, allying with the rebels and hoping to gain a Native American state in the new nation.

Biography

Netawatwees was probably born in the lower Delaware River Valley around 1686.[1] He was part of the Unami-speaking Lenape, the southern part of this coastal people whose territory extended to the lower Hudson River, western Long Island, and Connecticut. When he was young, he moved west with his family and tribe to escape encroachment from European-American colonists. In July 1758, he was living in a Delaware Indian settlement at the mouth of Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River below Pittsburgh. Records identify him as "ye great man of the Unami nation."

Netawatwees moved to Ohio with other migrant Delaware during the French and Indian War (1754–63). He favored alliances with the English in that conflict, which was part of the Seven Years' War between England and France in Europe.[1] He established a village near present-day Cuyahoga Falls.

From there, he moved to the Tuscarawas, a tributary of the Muskingum, where he became chieftain of the Delaware town called Gekelukpechink, meaning "still water." This town, which became known as Newcomer's Town, was on the north bank of the Tuscarawas on the eastern outskirts of present-day Newcomerstown. The Great Council met here until the Delaware population was consolidated at nearby Coshocton.

Although Netawatwees never converted to Christianity, he was influenced by the Moravian missionaries. Infirm in his old age, he was succeeded by White Eyes in 1776. His dying word on October 31, 1776, implored the Delaware to give up their native practices and follow the teachings of the Moravian pastors.

Netawatwees married and he and his wife had a family together. Their son Bemino (John Killbuck Sr.) became a renowned war leader allied with the French during the French and Indian War. His grandson was Gelelemend (1737–1811), or John Killbuck Jr., a Delaware chief active during the American Revolutionary War.

Sources

1. ↑ Various, "Netawatwees," Wikidata, URL: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6998671. Accessed 14 Feb 2019.
2. ↑ Anon. "Netawatwees," Ohio History Central. URL: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Netawatwees?rec=286. Accessed on 21 July 2017 by Patricia Prickett Hickin.
3. ↑ Scott Paul Gordon The Killbuck-Henry Family Legend Revisited: Part 2: Gelelemend in The Jacobsburg Record, special edition (Jacobsburg Historical Society, April 2010)

See also:

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 26 May 2019, 19:43), entry for Chief Netawatwees(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:G9YF-1W2); contributed by various users.
• Unknown author, "Netawatwees," Wikidata, URL: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6998671. Accessed 14 Feb 2019.

• Unknown author, "Netawatwees," Wikipedia.org. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netawatwees. Accessed on 21 July 2017 by Patricia Prickett Hickin.

• Unknown author, "Netawatwees," Ohio History Central. URL: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Netawatwees?rec=286. Accessed on 21 July 2017 by Patricia Prickett Hickin.

• Image of Lenape flag, Ancestry.com. URL: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=0c416c10-5fde-4189-808e-1adf88d35549&tid=18112781&pid=1051554909. Accessed on 21 July 2017 by Patricia Prickett Hickin.

• Image of Netawatwees URL: http://philaprintshop.com/images/mk43.jpg. Accessed on 21 July 2017 by Patricia Prickett Hickin.

• Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger 1772-1781, Pennsylvania University Press (Nov 2010)