Nonhelema: Chieftess, Warrior, and Advocate for Neutrality in the Revolutionary War

Nonhelema as imagined by Nations and Cannons

Nonhelema was born around 1718 into the Chillicothe division of the Swanee nation, an Algonquin-speaking group indigenous to the Ohio Valley region. She spent much of her childhood in Pennsylvania. She married her first husband, a Chillicothe chief, in 1734. By 1750, European expansion had moved the Swanee into Ohio, where Nonhelema and her brother, Hokoleskwa (“Cornstalk”), established themselves as leaders in the tribe. Nonhelema was both a chieftess and the head of the tribe's peace council, a group made up of women who were required to approve all formal battles. She was also known as a skilled warrior, and was called “the Grenadier” by some English soldiers due to her over 6 foot stature. 

Like all indigenous groups in North America, the Swanee’s relationship with European colonists could be described as tenuous at best. They had formed an alliance with the British following the French and Indian War, but problems with land boundary agreements continued to cause conflict. The 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix extended the boundary for European settlement westward into what is now West Virginia and Kentucky, but the Swanee did not agree to these terms. The treaty had been negotiated by the Iroquois Confederacy, who claimed jurisdiction over the area, despite the fact that other tribes used the land for hunting and seasonal settlement. As English colonists began to spread into the Ohio Valley, tensions between them and the indigenous tribes turned into violent confrontations, resulting in Dunmore’s War in 1774, in which Hokoleskwa played a major role. In the end, Hokoleskwa and the Shawnee were forced to recognize the borders set by the Stanwix Treaty, albeit reluctantly. 

Once the Revolutionary War began to spread to the western frontier, the British appealed to the indigenous groups for military support, successfully courting most of the Swanee nation. Nonhelema and her brother, however, harbored sympathy for the Patriots, and advocated for their tribe’s neutrality. 

In November 1777, Hokoleskwa made a diplomatic visit to Fort Randolph to stress his tribe’s neutrality. The Patriots of the fort took him hostage, and following the murder of some soldiers by a band from an unnamed indigenous tribe, a group of Fort Randolph soldiers executed Hokoleskwa and his companions. 

Hokoleskwa’s killers were brought to trial, but all were aquitted, as none of their fellow soldiers would testify against them. Even after this tragedy, Nonhelema continued to support the Patriots, and would go on to save lives at Fort Randolph by warning them of an attack. She aided the Americans throughout the war, serving as a scout and translator for both soldiers and settlers. 

Nonhelema would later petition Congress for a plot of land in Ohio as compensation for her service during the war. Instead, she was granted a pension of daily food rations and an annual allotment of blankets and clothing. 

Nonhelema married twice more, and had children with Colonels Alexander McKee and Richard Butler. She also compiled a dictionary of Swanee words. Nonhelema died in December of 1786. 

Works Cited

Blackley, Katie. “Shawnee Chieftess Nonhelema Worked To Negotiate Peace In The 18th Century.” 90.5 WESA, www.wesa.fm/post/shawnee-chieftess-nonhelema-worked-negotiate-peace-18th-century#stream/0.

Nash, Gary B. The Unknown American Revolution the Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America. Pimlico, 2007.