In the early 1770s, Chief White Eyes, Koquechagachton, of the Delaware tribe founded White Eyes Town approximately two miles southeast on a plain near present-day West Lafayette. A friend of the Moravian leader David Zeisberger, White Eyes strongly supported Moravian missionary efforts and kept the Delawares neutral during the American Revolutionary War. His aim was to bring his people under the influence of Christianity, and he also hoped to establish a fourteenth state for the Indian nations to join the other thirteen. White Eyes died at the height of his career in November 1778 near Pittsburgh, and the cause of his death remains open to question.