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   Susquehannock

Susquehanna River

Skenandoa chief

   Susquehannock location was Susquehanna River and its branches from the north end of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland across Pennsylvania into southern New York.

   The original number is uncertain, since Europeans seldom visited their villages. The best guesses of their population are somewhere between 5,000 to 7,000 in 1600 in at least five tribal groups. By 1700 there were only 300 Susquehannock. Their rapid decline continued until the last 20 were massacred by a mob of colonists in 1763. There are, however, known descendents among the Iroquois and Delaware. The famous Oneida sachem during the American Revolution, Skenandoa, was of Susquehanna descent as was Logan, a Mingo chief in Ohio. Another possibility is some Susquehannock are believed to have joined the Meherrin (North Carolina) during the 1670s. The Meherrin were later absorbed by the Tuscarora and migrated as a part of them to New York in 1722. Currently, there should be Susquehannock blood among the members of the Delaware, Tuscarora, Oneida, and Oklahoma Seneca.

   Susquehannock appears to have been an Algonquin name meaning the "people of the Muddy River" (Susquehanna). Whatever name they used for themselves and their confederacy (if indeed there ever was one) has been lost. There are several other different names for Susquehannock which were commonly used by early Europeans. The French called them Andaste from their Huron name Andastoerrhonon. The Dutch and Swedes used the Delaware name of Minqua meaning "stealthy" or "treacherous." Eventually, they made a distinction between White Minqua (Susquehannock) and the Black Minqua who lived farther to the west and were probably part of the Erie.

Susquehannock

   Almost completely forgotten today, the Susquehannock were one of the most formidable tribes of mid-Atlantic region at the time of European contact and dominated the large region between the Potomac River in northern Virginia to southern New York. Little is known about them, since they lived some distance inland from the coast, and Europeans did not often visit their villages before they had been destroyed by epidemic and wars with the Iroquois in 1675. The Susquehannock have been called noble and heroic. They have also been described as aggressive, warlike, imperialistic, and bitter enemies of the Iroquois. They may also have warred with the Mahican from the central Hudson Valley. When he first met the Susquehannock in 1608, Captain John Smith was especially impressed with their size, deep voices, and the variety of their weapons. Their height must have been exceptional, because the Swedes also commented on it thirty years later. The constant warfare between Iroquian-speaking tribes gave the Susquehannock a military advantage over their more peaceful Algonquin neighbors to the east and south. Using canoes for transport, Susquehannock war parties routinely attacked the Delaware tribes along the Delaware River and travelled down the Susquehanna where they terrorized the Nanticoke, Conoy, and Powhatan living on Chesapeake Bay.

   The Susquehannock lived in a number of large, fortified villages (perhaps as many as 20) that stretched along the Susquehanna River and its branches across Pennsylvania into southern New York. How far west their territory extended on the western fork of the Susquehanna and the Juanita Rivers is unclear. It was, however, far enough that they were allies and trading partners of the Erie in northern Ohio and the Huron and Neutrals of southern Ontario. Little is known about their political and social organization, but it can be safely assumed that it was similar to the Iroquois who lived just north of them in upstate New York. There would have been several individual tribes. Clans were almost certainly matrilineal (descent traced through the mother), and Turtle, Fox, and Wolf have been mentioned as possible names. Like other Iroquian tribes, the Susquehannock farmed extensively. In the spring, they planted maize, beans, and squash in the fields near their villages. After this was finished, many groups moved south for the summer to temporary sites on Chesapeake Bay to fish and gather shellfish returning in the fall to harvest their crops and hunt.

Susquehannock man

   Since the Susquehannock apparently had been good friends with the Huron from times long before contact, it is possible they migrated to the Susquehanna Valley from the north. The earliest village sites identified as Susquehannock were located on the upper Susquehanna River and date from about 1550, but they probably had occupied the region for at least 400 years before this. Although they inflicted a major defeat on the Mohawk shortly before 1600, wars with the Iroquois had by 1570 forced the Susquehannock south into the lower Susquehanna Valley. Hardened by years of constant warfare, they overwhelmed the Algonquin tribes along the shores of Chesapeake Bay and began extending their control southward. The first European contact with the Susquehannock was in 1608 when Captain John Smith (from Jamestown) was exploring the northern end of Chesapeake Bay. This encounter was friendly enough, but Smith was wary because of their reputation and awed by their size. His later reports described them as giants.

   The Powhatan also knew the Susquehannock (whom they called cannibals) from painful experience, and when the English first settled Virginia, the Powhatan had placed their villages well-inland to protect them from Susquehannock war parties who ranged the coastline by canoes. One reason the Powhatan were not completely opposed to English settlement at first was that they provided additional protection, but the Susquehannock still attacked the Potomac (Powhatan) villages in northern Virginia during 1610.

   Beginning in 1626, the Susquehannock attacked the Delaware and by 1630 had forced many of them either south into Delaware or across the river into New Jersey. The Dutch accepted the outcome, but when they began to trade with the Susquehannock, they were pleased to discover the Susquehannock (skilled hunters and trappers) had more (and better) furs than the Delaware. By the time the Swedes made their first settlements on the Delaware River in 1638, the Delaware were entirely subject to the Susquehannock and needed permission from the "Minqua" to sign any treaties.

   The friendly trade relationship with the English became increasingly strained after the settlement of Maryland by English Catholics began in 1634. The reaction of the Susquehannock was not nearly as friendly, especially when settlements began to move steadily up the western side of Chesapeake Bay from Fort St. George on the St. Mary's River. A mutual desire to trade kept the English and Susquehannock from open warfare for a while, but steady encroachment eventually led to a series of incidents and confrontations, including wars with the Conoy and Wicomese. By 1642 the governor of Maryland had declared the Susquehannock were enemies of the colony to be shot on sight. Attempts at peace in 1644 failed, and Susquehannock trade with the English temporarily sputtered to a halt. In 1645 the Susquehannock ended their hostilities with Maryland and signed a treaty ceding their claims in Maryland between the Choptank and Patuxent Rivers.

Beaver

   Trading with all four European powers during the 1640s required that the Susquehannock produce a lot of fur. They were skilled hunters and trappers, but the huge demand kept them so busy hunting they had little time left to continue their war of conquest against the Delaware and Chesapeake Algonquin tribes. In west, however, it may have been different. One can only wonder where and how the Susquehannock got so much fur, and it is likely that, as the Susquehannock exhausted the beaver in central and western Pennsylvania, they were forced to look beyond their territory for more. Some was obtained from trade with the Erie and Shawnee, but the remainder probably came at the expense of encroachment and warfare with unknown tribes in the Ohio Valley. The Beaver Wars (1630-1700) were a period of intense intertribal warfare in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley created by competition in the fur trade. The Susquehannock were obviously a major participant, but the most important confrontation was between the Huron Confederation which traded with the French and the Iroquois League which traded with the Dutch.

   It took the Iroquois until 1675 to defeat the Susquehannock. Driven from Pennsylvania, the survivors settled on the upper Potomac River at the invitation of the Maryland's governor. Actually there was no refuge for them. The location may have been acceptable to a royal governor, but it was deeply resented by the local colonists. After several depredations (probably Iroquois), a 1,000 man army (actually an armed mob) assembled under Colonel John Washington (great-grandfather of George). In direct defiance of the orders of Virginia's governor, Washington's militia besieged the Susquehannock in an old fort on the Potomac which they had occupied to defend themselves against the Iroquois. Eventually the Susquehannock were able to assure the colonists they were peaceful and even offered six of their sachems as hostages as proof. Satisfied, the English took the hostages and left, but on the way home, they learned of other attacks in the area and killed the hostages.

   The Susquehannock abandoned the fort, but launched a series of retaliatory raids on the Virginia and Maryland frontier. Afterwards, the Susquehannock moved north but were attacked by Maryland militia near Columbia, Maryland where many were killed. Some managed to reach safety with the Meherrin in North Carolina, but the remaining Susquehannock had little choice but to surrender to the Iroquois in 1676. Under the circumstances, they were treated well. Under the terms of the peace agreed to, the Susquehannock were settled among the Mohawk and Oneida, became members of the Iroquois "covenant chain," and their dominion over the Delaware and other former allies was also surrendered to the League. During the years following, several Susquehannock rose to leadership as Iroquois war chiefs.

   Although treated with respect, the Susquehannock were not free. By 1706 the Iroquois had relented somewhat and allowed 300 Susquehannock to return to the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania. No longer a powerful people, they became known as the Conestoga (from the name of their village). The Iroquois kept a watchful eye on them and used their homeland as a kind of supervised reservation for the displaced Algonquin and Siouan tribes (Delaware, Munsee, Nanticoke, Conoy, Tutelo, Saponi, Mahican, Shawnee, and New England Algonquin) who were allowed to settle there as members of the "covenant chain."

   Quaker missionaries arrived and made many conversions among the Susquehannock. As Conestoga became a Christian village, the more traditional Susquehannock left - either returning to the Oneida in New York, or moving west to Ohio to join the Mingo. By 1763 there were only 20 members (all Christians) of this last identifiable group of the Susquehannock. They were totally peaceful, but atrocities committed by others during the Pontiac Uprising of that year outraged the white settlers in the vicinity who just wanted to kill Indians - any Indians - in revenge. Feeling this way they could have grabbed a rifle and taken to the woods to find the hostiles, but there was an easier target closer at hand. As feelings rose, fourteen Conestoga were arrested and placed in the jail at Lancaster for their own protection. A mob formed (known as the Paxton boys). They proceeded to the village at Conestoga, killed the six Susquehanna they found there, and burned the houses. Then they went to the jail, broke in, took the last fourteen Susquehannock the world would ever see ...and beat them to death!

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