John and Edith Kilbuck

Who was John and Edith Kilbuck?

John Henry Kilbuck — sometimes spelled Killbuck — and his wife, Edith Kilbuck, were Moravian missionaries in southwestern Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. John H. Kilbuck was the first Lenape to be ordained as a Moravian minister. They served the Yupik people, used their language in the Moravian Church in their area, and supported development of a writing system for Yupik.

John was the great-grandson of the Delaware principal chief Gelelemend, who signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt. It was the first American Indian treaty with the recently declared United States. Born in Kansas, John Henry Killbuck was educated by Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he went to seminary. Edith was the daughter and granddaughter of Moravian missionaries in Kansas.