Captain Pipe (1725-1818) was the leader of the Wolf Clan of the Lenape during the American Revolutionary War.
Biography[]
Konieschquanoheel was born in 1725, and his "public name" was Hopocan, meaning "tobacco pipe". He was nicknamed "Captain Pipe" for his status as a chief and after the meaning of his name, and he succeeded his uncle Custaloga as chief of the Wolf Clan of the Lenape. Captain Pipe tried to remain neutral during the American Revolutionary War, refusing to take up arms against the United States even after Edward Hand's men killed his mother, brother, and a few of his children during a campaign in 1778. Lachlan McIntosh promised to build the Lenape a fort to protect them from the British and American settlers, and he also demanded that the Lenape send warriors to assist with the capture of Fort Detroit or face extermination if they refused. Captain Pipe decided to ally with the British, and the destruction of his village by Daniel Brodhead's men in 1781 ended the Lenape's neutrality. In 1782, Captain Pipe had General William Crawford tortured and executed in retaliation for the American incursions into Ohio, and he continued to resist the Americans until he decided to negotiate treaties with them in the 1810s and 1820s. In 1812, his tribe moved to Orestes, Indiana, before moving to Kansas in 1821. Pipe was buried around Orestes after dying in 1818.