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As the Revolutionary War intensified, the Lenape in present-day [[Ohio]] were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. When the war began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. The Lenape were living in numerous villages around their main village of ''[[Coshocton, Ohio|Coshocton]]'',<ref>{{ws|[[William Dean Howells]], "[[s:Three Villages/3 Gnadenhütten|Gnadenhütten]]," ''[[s:Three Villages|Three Villages]]'', Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1884}}, accessed 19 Mar 2010</ref> between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The Americans had [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]] (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area of [[Fort Detroit]] across the river in present-day [[Michigan]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Detroit |url=https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fort_Detroit |access-date=6 Jul 2023 |website=Ohio History Central}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Pitt |url=https://www.phmc.pa.gov:443/Museums/Military-History/Pages/Fort-Pitt.aspx |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission |language=en-US}}</ref>
Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American settlers and moved to the west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the [[Scioto River|Scioto]] and [[Sandusky River|Sandusky]] rivers. In 1778, Killbuck permitted American soldiers to traverse Lenape territory so that the soldiers could attack British-held Fort Detroit. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the major Lenape village of Coshocton, to provide them with protection from potential attacks by British-allied Indians and [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]]. The Americans agreed and built [[Fort Laurens]], which they garrisoned.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.fortlaurensmuseum.org/ourhistory.html |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=Fort Laurens Museum |language=en}}</ref> Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and Lenape leaders signed the [[Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778)]] with the Americans. Through this treaty, the Lenape hoped to establish the Ohio country as a state inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, as a subset of the new United States. A third group of Lenape, many of them converted [[Christian Munsee]]s, lived in several mission villages run by [[Moravian Church|Moravian]]s. Like the other bands, they also spoke the [[Munsee]] branch of Lenape, an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.kansasmunsee.org/mission-1 |website=The Kansas Munsee}}</ref
The British made plans to attack [[Fort Laurens]] in early 1779 and demanded that the neutral Lenape formally side with the British. Killbuck warned the Americans of the planned attack. His actions helped save the fort, but the Americans abandoned it in August 1779. The Lenape had lost their protectors and found themselves without solid allies in the conflict, which compounded their dispossession at the hand of encroaching [[American pioneers]] during and after the war.<ref name=":3" />
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