Shawnee Chieftain. Born in what is now Western Pennsylvania he was known as Hokolewsqua among his people. The Shawnee migrated to the Ohio Territory as they gave ground in the face of expanding American settlement. He fought with the French against the British during the French and Indian War. He continued to battle settler encroachment into Ohio Territory, and in 1763 he led an expedition against settlements along Muddy Creek in Greenbrier County in what is now West Virginia. In the early 1770s, Cornstalk became the leader of a confederacy of Indian tribes living in the Territory. He led a mixed group of Shawnee and Mingo warriors against troops from Virginia at the Battle of Point Pleasant near the juncture of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers in present day West Virginia, where both sides suffered heavy losses, and Cornstalk was forced to withdraw. He was then forced to accept the Ohio River as the boundary line in the subsequent treaty. During the American Revolution, Cornstalk worked to keep the Shawnee neutral, representing his people at treaty councils at Fort Pitt in 1775 and 1776. When the British attempted to build a coalition of Indians to fight against the colonists, Cornstalk refused to join, though many Shawnees hoped to take advantage of the war and use British aid to reclaim lands lost to the Americans. By the winter of 1776, the Shawnee were divided into a neutral faction led by Cornstalk, and other various militant bands. In the fall of 1777, Cornstalk and a small party made a diplomatic visit to the American Fort Randolph, Cornstalk and his two companions were detained by Captain Arbuckle, the fort commander, who had decided on his own initiative to take the Shawnees hostage. According to a nineteenth century History of Kanawha County, two young men were later fired upon and one was killed, and the militia blamed Cornstalk's son, Elinipsico, who had come to check upon his father. Elinipsico denied the charge, but Cornstalk, his men, and his his son, were summarily shot to death. American leaders were thoroughly alarmed by the murder of Cornstalk who they believed was their only hope of a Shawnee neutrality. Patrick Henry demanded Cornstalk's killers be brought to trial, but no one was arrested and the militiamen who perpetrated the murders were shortly ordered to return home. Subsequently, some inquiries into the murderers were made, but no actions were ever taken. His name has also been recorded as Hokolesqua and Hokolewskwa.