Pisquetomen

Pisquetomen (died 1762) was a Lenape chief who acted as interpreter and negotiator for the Lenape in dealings with the Provincial government of Pennsylvania during the mid-eighteenth century. After being rejected in his bid to succeed his uncle Sassoonan as Lenape chief, Pisquetomen joined Shingas and Captain Jacobs in a series of deadly attacks on Pennsylvania settlements at the beginning of the French and Indian War. He eventually participated in peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Easton in 1758, and is believed to have died in 1762.

Birth and early life

Pisquetomen, his older brother Nenatcheehunt, and his two younger brothers Tamaqua (known to the colonists as "King Beaver") and Shingas ("Wet Marshy Ground") were probably born in the Tulpehocken Creek Valley, in Berks and Lebanon counties, Pennsylvania. One source reports that Pisquetoman had six brothers (Tamaqua, Nenatcheehunt, Shingas, Buffalo Horn, Munhuttakiswilluxissohpon, and Miuskillamize). He and his brothers were probably the sons of a sister of Sassoonan, and grandsons of Tamanend. "Pisquetomen" means "he who keeps on, though it is getting dark." The Lenape living in that area were forced out in 1722 when Governor William Keith invited a group of German immigrants to move from the Schoharie Valley in New York to Tulpehocken. Pisquetomen and Sassoonan negotiated payment, and then relocated to Shamokin. Pisquetomen moved to Kittanning—a town slowly becoming the center for Unami-speakers of the Turtle and Turkey phratries. The Lenape regarded Pisquetomen as "high in authority among the Delawares in the West," and Sassoonan believed him a perfect choice to be "the person who is to have the chief command and to be the mouth of his [Lenape] people."

Pisquetomen was also a Lenape leader who could unify the Lenape, both east and west. His experiences represented what the Lenape were facing in Pennsylvania. He had known displacement, when his people were forced from the Tulpehocken Valley in 1732, and then a sense of freedom and independence when he moved his followers west into Kittanning. But Logan saw Pisquetomen as an obstructionist to Pennsylvania’s political agenda, which favored Iroquois power on the frontier. Pisquetomen was not a pliable figurehead who would help the Six Nations control the Lenape. Most importantly, both Pennsylvania and the Six Nations saw Pisquetomen as a dynamic leader consistent with the obstinate and independent nature of the western Lenape, who could influence the eastern Lenape to adopt a stance of defiance. Logan, who wanted a leader with the influence and determination to recall all Ohio Lenape back to the Susquehanna region, quickly saw that Pisquetomen, like Sassoonan, lacked the will to bring the western Lenape home.

Interregnum 1747-1752

Following the rejection of Pisquetomen, an interregnum existed among the western Lenape. They would not give in to the demands of the colonial authorities, but they also knew that until the crisis was resolved, the western Lenape were in a state of diplomatic limbo, and that they had no voice or influence with the Pennsylvania government. Patience wore thin within the alliance. Governor James Hamilton was eager to settle the matter and hoped they would choose a new leader acceptable to all parties: "You must inform the said Chiefs that...their Brethren in Philadelphia...advise them to recommend such persons to us...with whom publick business shall be transacted, and that their Brethren in Philadelphia will look upon them so recommended as Chief or Chiefs of the Delawares."

At the Logstown Treaty talks on May 28, 1751, George Croghan, speaking on behalf of the Six Nations and Governor Hamilton, asked the Lenape to "choose amongst Yourselves one of your wisest Counsellors and present to your Brethren the Six Nations and me [Hamilton] for a Chief, and he so chosen by you shall be looked upon by us as your King."

The Logstown Treaty conference, 1752

At the Logstown Treaty talks in June and July 1752, the Ohio Land Company of Virginia and Virginia commissioners sought to gain confirmation of the 1744 Lancaster Treaty in which the Six Nations supposedly gave up territory to Virginia that bordered the Ohio River on the southeast. The Six Nations refused to attend, sending instead their "half-kings" (Ohio Senecas or Mingos) to supervise the affairs of the Ohio tribes and to protect Iroquois interests. They shot her father, clubbed her brother to death, and took Barbara and her sister captive.

Two weeks after the Penn's Creek massacre, Pisquetomen may have participated in one or more of the subsequent raids on the Scotch-Irish settlements in what is now Fulton and Franklin counties on the Maryland border (in what became known as the Great Cove massacre), and also in an attack on settlers along Swatara Creek in what is now Lebanon County and Tulpehocken Creek in Berks County. near present-day Southwest Madison Township, Pennsylvania. His mother and a neighbor were killed by the Indians, and he was brought to Kittanning, where he was adopted as a brother by Pisquetomen (whom Gibson refers to as "Bisquittam" ). Gibson says that Pisquetomen was disabled due to "a wound received by his knife in skinning a deer," and adopted Gibson to assist him. Gibson wrote in his memoir that at this time, Pisquetomen "took a Dutch captive for his wife." Gibson reports that Pisquetomen spoke and understood English well.

In October 1758, after French and Indian forces were defeated in an attack on the British outpost of Fort Ligonier, Pisquetomen and Gibson moved to Muskingum. In March 1759 Gibson escaped, together with Marie Le Roy and Barbara Leininger and a Scotsman named David Brackenridge, and walked 250 miles to Fort Pitt (then under construction). Fearing that the ever-advancing European settlers would permanently take control of their lands, Lenape chiefs hoped to bargain for a binding treaty that would grant them protected space. Pennsylvania Deputy Governor William Denny asked Christian Frederick Post to act as negotiator at Kuskusky. Post was an experienced frontiersman and had two Lenape wives, spoke the language well, and the Lenape trusted him. He was instructed by Deputy Governor Denny to offer amnesty to all Lenape who had participated in frontier raids against Pennsylvania if they would now support the British. Pisquetomen accompanied Post and Keekyuscung to Philadelphia in July, 1758, to meet with Richard Peters and Deputy Governor Denny. Post then returned with Pisquetomen, and met his brothers Shingas and Tamaqua at the Kuskuskies on 12 August 1758. Post assured Tamaqua and the other leaders that the English wanted peace. Post continued down the Ohio to address other Lenape and their Shawnee and Mingo allies. Though well received by the Indians, Post had to be protected from the French by Pisquetomen and his warriors. After the French withdrew from Fort Duquesne on 22 November 1758, Pisquetomen told Post that, for a lasting peace, the English "must speedily retire to the other side of the mountains," adding that if they did so, "I will use it for an argument with other nations of Indians." Post made no such promise, however. In April and May, 1759, Kenny stayed at Fort Pitt, where he traded with the elderly Pisquetomen, as well as Shingas and Killbuck. Kenny reports that Pisquetomen "often called himself a Quaker," although it does not appear that Pisquetomen ever formally converted to Christianity.

Pisquetomen is believed to have died in 1762.