Alexander McKee

Colonel Alexander McKee
Native name	Wapameisheu
Born	ca. 1735
Died	15 January 1799
Allegiance	British Indian Department Agent; Indian Department, Pennsylvania;
Years of service	French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War, Northwest Indian War
Rank	Colonel
Spouse(s)	1st wife: Sewatha Sarah Straighttail (1727); 2nd wife: Yellow Britches-Edna Rising Sun.
Relations	Father: Thomas, an Irish immigrant; Mother: Mary, a North Carolina settler captured and adopted by the Shawnee; Brothers: Thomas Alexander McKee AKA Palewiechen, James McKee of McKees Rocks, PA. Son: Thomas McKee by Nonhelema AKA The Grenedier Squaw

Alexander McKee (ca. 1735 – 15 January 1799) was an agent in the British Indian Department during the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the Northwest Indian War. He achieved the rank of colonel.

Alexander McKee was born about 1735 as the second son of Thomas McKee an Irish immigrant (probably Scots-Irish from northern Ireland), fur trader, Indian Agent, and interpreter for General Forbes at Fort Pitt. His mother, Mary, was a white captive from a North Carolina settler's family who had been adopted and assimilated into the Shawnee tribe. She died when he was young. He had an older half-brother, Thomas Alexander McKee (AKA Pelewiechen), who had immigrated with their father to the colonies from Ireland. The senior Thomas McKee married Margaret Tecumsapah Opessa, a daughter of Pride Opessa, who signed the original Treaty with Wm Penn on April 23, 1701, and a granddaughter of King Opessa and Chief Cornstalk. Margaret was an older sister to Alexander McKee's first wife, Sewatha Sarah Straighttail, and to Metheotashe Mary Opessa, the mother of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet. It was Margaret who taught Alexander the customs and language of the Shawnee. He developed a lifelong relationship with the Ohio Indian tribes.

As a young man, Alexander McKee began working with traders who did business with the Indians of the Ohio Country. Soon, he was able to establish his own trading business. Because of his good relations with the Ohio tribes, Indian agent George Croghan enlisted McKee in the service of the Crown's Indian Department. Around 1764, McKee settled in what is now McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and built a substantial house. George Washington visited him there in 1770, and mentions this in his diary. McKee continued in the service of Pennsylvania for some time after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

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