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The Cat People

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

Population
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.

Names
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.
Variations of these were: Andastaka, Andasto, Atrakwer, Gandatogué, Mengwe,
Menquay, Mincku, and Minque. The English colonists in Virginia and Maryland called
them the Susquehannock, but Pennsylvanians during the 1700s preferred Conestoga
derived from Kanastoge (place of the immersed pole), the name of their last
village in Pennsylvania. The Powhatan in northern Virginia may have called them
the Pocoughtaonack or Bocootawwanauke. Although it is likely these peoples were
Susquehannock, their precise identity is uncertain.

Language
Iroquian - reportedly similar to Huron.

Sub-Tribes
The Susquehannock appear to have been a confederacy of at least five tribes with
more than 20 villages. Unfortunately, the names of individual tribes and villages
have been lost. Names associated with the Susquehannock are:

Akhrakuaeronon (Atrakwaeronnon), Akwinoshioni, Atquanachuke, Attaock, Carantouan,


Cepowig, Junita (Ihonado), Kaiquariegehaga, Ohongeoguena (Ohongeeoquena), Oscalui,
Quadroque, Sasquesahanough, Sconondihago (Seconondihago or Skonedidehaga),
Serosquacke, Takoulguehronnon, Tehaque, Tesinigh, Unquehiett, Usququhaga,
Utchowig, Wyoming, and Wysox.
Culture
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.

History
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. Drawn by the potential profits from furs, other
Europeans came to the New World during the early 1600s. Henry Hudson explored
Delaware Bay and the Hudson River in 1609 for the Dutch East India Company, and by
1614 the Dutch had established a trading post on the Hudson River and were trading
with the Delaware on the lower Delaware River and Delaware Bay. From the French
settlement at Quebec on the St. Lawrence River, Étienne Brulé visited the Huron
villages on Georgian Bay in 1611.

During 1615 Brulé explored the area south of the Huron homeland. Crossing the
Niagara River, he reached the Susquehannock villages on the upper Susquehanna
River, where he discovered the Susquehannock were more than willing to ally
themselves with the French and Huron in their war against the Iroquois League.
Friendly relations with the Susquehannock were particularily valuable to the
French, not only for purposes of trade, but because they trapped the Iroquois
between two powerful enemies. Unfortunately, the new alliance alarmed Dutch
traders on the Hudson River, and they actively supported the Mohawk in 1615
against the Susquehannock. Although they were relatively few in number and
isolated by their inland location, the Susquehannock managed to become an
important trading partner with all of the competing European powers - an
achievement unmatched by any other tribe.

Also handicapped by their inland location, the Iroquois first had to contend with
the powerful Mahican confederacy in order to trade with the Dutch, and it took
four-years of war (1624-28) before the Mohawk emerged as the pre-eminent trading
partner of the Dutch in the Hudson Valley. The Susquehannock, however, had an
easier time against the numerous - but peaceful and disorganized - Delaware tribes
who traded with the Dutch along the lower Delaware. 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.

Meanwhile, to the south in Virginia, the English colonists in 1625 had defeated
the Powhatan, the only Algonquin confederacy strong enough to have challenged the
Susquehannock. It took another war (1644-46) for the English to completely crush
the Powhatan and take control of eastern Virginia, so they had little time to
concern themselves about the Susquehannock. Unchallenged, the Susquehannock
extended their dominion south from the Susquehanna to the Potomac River and
claimed the area in between as hunting territory. They did not ask the tribes who
lived there. To remain, the Patuxent and Conoy (Piscataway) on the western shore
of the Chesapeake were forced to ally with the English in Virginia by 1628. This
alliance was never tested, since the Susquehannock usually left the residents
alone as long as they did not challenge their right to hunt when and where they
pleased. The English in Virginia soon grew interested in fur trade with the
Susquehannock, and William Claiborne established a trading post on Kent Island in
upper Chesapeake Bay in 1631. The Susquehannock by this time were able to trade
with the French in Canada (through the Huron), the Dutch on Delaware Bay, and the
English in Virginia.

The friendly trade relationship with the English became increasingly strained
after the settlement of Maryland by English Catholics began in 1634. For obvious
reasons, the Conoy and Patuxent welcomed the new colonists, and a Jesuit mission
was opened that year at their village at Piscataway. 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.

The Susquehannock hardly noticed the brief interruption of trade with the English.
In 1638 Peter Minuit, a former Dutch governor of New Amsterdam who had a new job,
brought the Swedes to the lower Delaware River (claimed by the Dutch). Minuit
purchased land from the Delaware and built Ft. Christina for trade and to block
Dutch access to the Delaware Valley. It should be noted that the Delaware needed
permission to sell, and two "Mingua" representatives attended the signing of their
treaty with the Swedes. While the trade with the English slowed between 1640 and
1645, the Swedes more than made up the difference. The Susquehannock were also
able to continue trade with Dutch by using the portages between the Susquehanna,
Delaware, and Hudson Rivers to New Amsterdam.

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.

At first Europeans had been reluctant to trade firearms to natives and restricted
the number and amount of ammunition. This restriction dissolved as the competition
increased. When English traders from Boston attempted to lure the Mohawk from the
Dutch by selling firearms, the Dutch countered by providing them in unlimited
amounts. Suddenly much-better armed than the Huron and their allies, the Iroquois
began a major offensive, and the level of violence in the Beaver Wars escalated
dramatically. In the arms race that followed, no tribe had a more advantageous
position than the Susquehannock. By playing on the fears of the rival European
traders, they had access to whatever weapons in any amount they wished. To say
they were well-armed would be an understatement. One of the Susquehannock villages
even had a cannon to defend itself, and so far as is known, they were the only
Native Americans ever to use this type of heavy armament.

For as far into the past as can be determined, the Susquehannock were friends of
the Huron and enemies of the Iroquois. Susquehannock alliances and trade also
extended to the Erie and Neutrals, with the result that the Iroquois were
surrounded by hostile tribes. Having exhausted the beaver in their homeland, the
Iroquois were running out of the fur they needed to trade for Dutch firearms.
Otherwise, with European epidemics decimating their villages, it was only a matter
of time before they were annihilated. Their enemies, of course, were well-aware of
this problem and refused permission for Iroquois hunters to pass through their
territories. Faced with a blockade, the Iroquois were forced into a war where they
needed to either conquer or be destroyed. They concentrated their attacks on the
Huron after 1640, and by 1645 had succeeded in isolating them from the Algonkin,
Montagnais, and French in the east. There was a two-year lull in the fighting
following a truce that year, but in 1647 the Iroquois launched massive attacks
into the Huron homeland and destroyed the Arendaronon villages.

Sensing that the situation was becoming serious, Susquehannock warriors fought as
Huron allies, while their ambassadors sent to the Iroquois council flatly demanded
a halt to the war. For some inexplicable reason the Huron refused further offers
of help from the Susquehannock and were overrun by the Iroquois during the winter
of 1648-49. The Tionontati met a similar fate a year later, and as the Iroquois
absorbed 1000s of captured warriors into their ranks, the Susquehannock were in
grave danger. In 1650 the western Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga) attacked
the Neutrals, and the Susquehannock entered the war against the Iroquois. Whatever
help they could have given the Neutrals was cut short when the Mohawk attacked the
Susquehannock villages in 1651. With the Susquehannock unable, and the Erie
unwilling to help, the Neutrals were quickly defeated. The Mohawk, however, found
the well-armed Susquehannock a dangerous and stubborn foe. The war dragged on
until 1656 with the Mohawk (at great cost to themselves) slowly pushing the
Susquehannock down the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River.

The Susquehannock were suddenly alone. The French were powerless after Iroquois
victories over the Huron and Neutrals, and the Erie soon had their own war of
survival against the western Iroquois (1653-56). Hard pressed by the Mohawk, the
Susquehannock tried to strengthen their ties to the Dutch in 1651 by selling them
some land on the Delaware River, but the Dutch remained neutral. The Swedes
continued to supply them with anything they wanted, but the Susquehannock had
become involved in fighting with Virginia Puritans that had settled in northern
Maryland in 1649. Not able to fight two wars at the same time, the Susquehannock
in 1652 signed a treaty with Maryland ceding much of the lower Susquehanna Valley
to secure peace and trade with English. Smallpox hit their villages during 1654,
but this affected the Mohawk as much as the Susquehannock and slowed the fighting.
For the Susquehannock, the major blow came in September, 1655 when the Dutch
seized the Swedish colonies. Without their primary supplier, the Susquehannock
were forced to ask the Mohawk for peace. Equally exhausted, the Mohawk agreed in
1656.

The Mohawk and their Oneida allies never fought the Susquehannock again, but peace
with them did not extend to the rest of the Iroquois League. After finishing with
the Erie, the western Iroquois turned their attention to their only remaining
Iroquian-speaking enemy. Besides the fact the Susquehannock had aided the
Neutrals, there was continuing aggravation since the Susquehannock had given
refuge to small groups of Neutrals and Erie that had eluded them. This simmered
and finally erupted into open warfare in 1658. Badly outnumbered, the
Susquehannock drew their Shawnee trading partners into the fighting and enlisted
the support of their tributary Algonquin and Siouan tribes (Delaware, Nanticoke,
Conoy, Saponi, and Tutelo). The Iroquois first attacked the Susquehannock's
allies: dispersing the Shawnee and scattering them to Illinois, Tennessee, and
South Carolina. Then they struck the Delaware throughout the Delaware Valley
during the 1660s and effectively took them out of the war. For the Susquehannock,
the worst blow was a smallpox epidemic in 1661 that devastated their population to
a point from which it never recovered.

Still they managed to hold on. A treaty signed with Maryland ended the lingering
hostility with the English. The agreement provided firearms and ammunition, since
the Maryland colonists were well-aware of the value of the Susquehannock as a
buffer against the Dutch-allied Iroquois. With English help, the Susquehannock
were able to turn back a major Iroquois invasion in 1663. The following year the
English took New York from the Dutch, and shortly afterwards formed their own
alliance with the Iroquois. Maryland, however, did not feel entirely assured by
this and in 1666 renewed its treaty with the Susquehannock. Coinciding with
another outbreak of smallpox in 1667, the Iroquois made peace with the French and
their native allies and this allowed them to concentrate on their war with the
Susquehannock. With the support of Maryland, the Susquehannock fought on in an
increasing bitter struggle, but by the fall of 1669, they were down to only 300
warriors and were forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. The Iroquois response to
their offer was to torture and kill the Susquehannock ambassador who brought it.

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. Most of the blame for these raids fell on
the Virginians' Pamunkey and Occaneechee allies and led to their near annihilation
by the colonists during Bacon's Rebellion the following year. 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. In 1683 William
Penn attempted to sign a treaty with them only to learn that the Susquehannock
(like the Delaware) first needed Iroquois approval to sign. Subsequent dealings by
the Pennsylvania government concentrated on the Iroquois and ignored the
subservient tribes. 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!

First Nations referred to in this Susquehannock History:

Erie
Huron
Mahican
Neutrals
Tionontati

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