Bull, often known as Captain Bull, was a son of the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

chief

Teedyuscung Teedyuscung (c. 1700–1763) was known as "King of the Delawares". He worked to establish a permanent Lenape (Delaware) home in eastern Pennsylvania in the Lehigh, Susquehanna, and Delaware River valleys. Teedyuscung participated in the Treaty ...

Biography

As with his father, Bull took an active role in fighting during

Pontiac's Rebellion Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–176 ...

, continuing following Teedyuscuns' death. Bull and his men were responsible for a number of frontier raids in the late Summer of 1763 through into the Winter, targeting the

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

. His encampment along the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

was discovered on the evening of 26 February 1674 and, under orders from Sir William Johnson, was surrounded in the morning by an allied Indian party. Bull was among forty-one prisoners taken, and was taken as a prisoner-of-war to New York where he remained for the rest of the conflict. In September 1764 a number of civilian hostages taken the previous year were released to Johnson. Bull was released in 1768 on condition of exile, and settled on the Virginia frontiers. In the following decade, Virginia became the site of intensifying frontier conflict between settlers and Shawnee raiding parties. Following a raid in 1772, Bull was falsely implicated and his village razed in retaliation.{{Cite web, url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/960 , title=Captain Bull , publisher=West Virginia Encyclopedia , accessdate=2023-07-06

References

Lenape people Indigenous people of Pontiac's War 1700s births