While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Conestoga (Kanastóge,
'at the place of the immersed pole'). An important Iroquoian
tribe that formerly lived on Susquehanna river and its branches.
When first met by Capt. John Smith, in 1608, and until their
conquest by the Iroquois
confederation in 1675, they were in alliance with the
Algonquian tribes of
the east shore of Chesapeake bay and at war with those on the
west shore. They were described as warlike and as
possessed of a physique far superior to that of all the other
neighboring tribes. By conquest they claimed the lands on
both sides of Chesapeake bay, from the Choptank and Patuxent
north to the territory of the Iroquois. In 1675, after their
defeat, they established themselves on the east bank of the
Potomac, in Maryland, immediately north of Piscataway Creek,
below which the Doag (Nanticoke) were then living. They formed a
close alliance with the Dutch and Swedes, and with the English
of Maryland. The Iroquois had carried on relentless war against
them, with varying success, which finally reduced them from
3,000(?) warriors in 1608 to about 550 in 1648, while their
allies brought the aggregate to about 1,250. Champlain says that
in 1615 they had more than 20 villages, of which only 3 were at
that time engaged in war with the Iroquois, and that their town
of Carantouan alone could muster more than 800 warriors. The
Iroquois of the north drove the Conestoga down on the tribes to
the south and west, who were allies of the English, a movement
involving the Conestoga in a war with Maryland and Virginia in
1675. Finding themselves surrounded by enemies on all sides, a
portion of them abandoned their country and took refuge with the
Occaneechi on Roanoke river, while the rest remained in
Pennsylvania. A quarrel occurred soon with the
Occaneechi, who made
common cause with the whites against the fugitive Conestoga, who
were compelled to return to Susquehanna river and submit to the
Iroquois. According to Colden they were all finally removed to
the country of the Oneida,
where they remained until they lost their language, when they
were allowed to return to Conestoga, their ancient town. Here
they rapidly wasted, until, at the close of the year 1763, the
remnant, numbering only 20, were massacred by a party of rioters
inflamed by the accounts of the Indian war then raging along the
Pennsylvania frontier. About 1675 their stockade, where they
were defeated by the Maryland forces, was on the east side of
Susquehanna river, 3 miles below Columbia, Pa. Herrman's map of
1676 located it at nearly the same point on the river, but on
the west bank. The Swedes and Dutch called them Minqua, from the
Delaware name applied to all tribes of Iroquoian stock; the
Powhatan tribes called them Susquehannock, a name signifying
'roily river,' which was adopted by the English of Virginia and
Maryland. The names of their villages are Attaock, Carantouan,
Cepowig, Quadroque, Sasquesahanough, Testnigh, and Utchowig. The
Meherrin, on the river of that name in south east Virginia, were
officially reported to be a band of the Conestoga driven south
by the Virginians during Bacon's rebellion in 1675-76.
