Bemino

Bemino, known as John Killbuck, Sr, was a renowned conjuror and war leader of the Delaware Indians during the French and Indian War (1754-63). He was a son of Netawatwees, at one time principal chief of the Delaware and his own son was Gelelemend (John Killbuck, Jr.), a Delaware chief during the American Revolutionary War. Bemino’s phratry (clan) is unclear but he was a member of either the Turtle or the Turkey phratry.

As leader of Delaware and Shawnee warriors, he destroyed British positions at Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert (in what is now eastern West Virginia) on April 27 and 28, 1758.

His mark is on the original Delaware Treaty document.

References

• White, Richard (1991), The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg 251.
• Morton, Oren F. (1910), A History of Pendleton County, West Virginia, Franklin, West Virginia.

External link

• Seybert Massacre (1758) at the WV Division of Culture and History