lands and villages, and it was not clear that the chiefs who signed the treaties had authority over the lands they were ceding. On June 7, 1803, Buckongahelas signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne in Indiana; the US set new boundaries for the Lenape and other nations. They also ceded salt springs. Algonquian tribes ceded large land tracts to the United States. Lastly, he signed the Treaty of Vincennes on August 18, 1804, in Vincennes, Indiana. The Lenape ceded lands between the Ohio and Wabash rivers. The treaty helped open the Ohio and Indiana territories to European-American settlement. Not able to read and write, Buckongahelas made "X" signatures on the three treaties. Buckongahelas spent his final years living with his people on the White River near present-day Muncie, Indiana. He died in May 1805 at the age of 85 from smallpox or influenza. Many local Native Americans thought the epidemics of fatal illnesses to be related to witchcraft, as their traditional remedies and medicine men had no effect on the course of the diseases. They conducted a witch-hunt and executed several Lenape suspected of witchcraft. The conditions of defeat and despair were the grounds for the rise of the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa, who promised renewed power for the American Indians against the European Americans. His brother Tecumseh became an influential chief leading a new Indian confederacy against the Americans in the early 19th century. Legacy and honors Chief Buckongahelas' loss of his son Mahonegon was memorialized in a 650-pound bronze statue installed in Buckhannon's Jawbone Run Park, because settlers admired his alliance with British colonists during the Seven Years' War. The statue depicts the chief cradling the body of his son. Ross Straight of Buckhannon, WV created the sculpture. Popular culture references The killing of the chief's son was represented in the historical romance novel The Scout of the Buckongehanon (1927), written by John Camillus McWhorter (1866–1937), a judge in Buckhannon. See also Frontier warfare during the American Revolution References Inline citations Sources McWhorter, Lucullus Virgil. Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia. McClain Printing, Parsons, West Virginia, 1915. Blaisdell, Bob. "Great Speeches by Native Americans." Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York, 2000. Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Sugden, John. "Buckongahelas" in American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 1999, subscription only online. Weslager, C. A. The Delaware Indians. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1972. White,