On this day in 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen aligned with the revolutionary colonists of the American Revolution, captured and murdered 90 members of the Christian Lenape tribe of Ohio. Committed in the name of defending the American frontier, the massacre was one of many acts of violence committed against Native American tribes during the American Revolution.
The Lenape, or commonly referred to as the Delaware, were a Native American tribe indigenous to the Northeastern Woodlands of the United States and Canada. Originally having resided in modern day Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, along the Northeastern coast of America, the Lenape tribe were, over the course of the 18th century, forced to seek refuge in the west from continuously expanding colonists. They experienced traumatic loss, first losing their native homeland and then, at the arrival of the American Revolution, forced to undergo a fractious divide within the tribe when made to choose between the two conflicting sides of the British and American colonists. Caught in the midst of two frontiers, the Lenape were faced with a burdensome choice. In the end, the tribe were unable to make a unanimous decision; a portion of the tribe traveled to Fort Detroit in allegiance with the British forces, while those who remained sympathetic to the American cause stayed at their central village of Coshocton (Gnadenhutten was an outlying village that, along with other smaller villages, encircled Coshocton). There was a third group who remained neutral, a smaller party made up of Moravian Christian Lenape who chose to reside within their mission villages, not far from the central village of Coshocton.
Despite the initial decision of the Lenape who had elected to ally with the American colonists, the frequent raids across the frontier into Lenape lands resulted in the Lenape changing their allegiance to the British forces of the North. In retaliation, Colonel Daniel Brodhead of the Continental Army, led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and destroyed the village of Coshocton, forcing any survivors to flee north. It is recorded that Brodhead had to withhold his men from enacting a similar kind of violence upon the neutral Moravian Lenape villages nearby. Soon after, in late 1781, British-allied Lenape Natives forced the Moravian Lenape from their villages, taking them northwest towards Lake Erie, territory controlled by British forces, and settled them into a new village that became known as Captive Town. Though after the rations that had been afforded to the Moravian Lenape began to run low, 150 of them were allowed to return to their villages in order to harvest the crops and collect from the food stores that they had been made to leave behind. In early March, the Moravian Lenape came into the proximity of the village of Gnadenhutten.
On March 8th, 1782, having arrived in the village, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen initiated a surprise attack under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson. The Lenape were rounded up and accused by Williamson of having taken part in raids over the Frontier. Despite all efforts by the Lenape to deny any involvement in the raiding, the militiamen voted to kill them. After being notified of the decision made by Williamson and his men, the Lenape requested time to prepare for death through prayer. They were imprisoned within two buildings, one for men and the other for women and children. They spent a night within the buildings before being moved to separate houses where they were to be killed. The colonial militiamen bludgeoned the Lenape before scalping them. 96 men, women and children were killed. The militiamen proceeded to sack the village of all its valuables before burning it to the ground, as well as the other abandoned Lenape villages. Years later, a missionary by the name of John Heckewelder who had worked with the Moravian Lenape, returned to the site and buried the bodies that had been left behind.
The attack was mostly received with horror, the atrocities committed against the Lenape were nauseating, but still there were American colonists who applauded the actions of Williamson and his men. The American treatment of Native Americans, to this day, has been incredibly disturbing. Over the course of hundreds of years, Native peoples, at the hands of the American institution, have experienced death, suppression and degradation beyond measure. Despite an entire history documenting the violence committed against Native tribes, much of the general public is yet to recognize the irrevocable harm that has been caused. It is an indication of a history that America has not always been willing to acknowledge.
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