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!
Susquehanna. A town and a tribe of
the Iroquoian stock, situated in 1608 on the lower portion of the
Susquehanna river and its effluents. The original form of the name used by
Capt. John Smith was Sasquesahannocks in his text and
Sasquesahanough on his map. He first heard the name from Tockwock,
Nanticoke, or Powhatan
speakers of the Algonquian tongue, while exploring the waters of upper
Chesapeake bay and its affluents, as the designation of a mighty people
who dwelt on the Susquehanna two days journey "higher than our barge could
pass for rocks." Of this people Smith wrote: "Such great and
well-proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seemed like giants to the
English, yea to their neighbors;" also that they were scarcely known to
Powhatan, could muster nearly 600 able men, and lived in palisaded towns
to defend themselves from the "Massawomeckes, their mortal enemies."
Meeting at the head of the bay 60 of their warriors, five of their chiefs
did not hesitate to hoard his barge. Although in his text Smith does not
mention the names of any Susquehanna towns, he nevertheless places on his
map 6 towns with" king's houses" under the general rubric "Sasquesahanough."
The six are Sasquesahanough, Quadroque, Attaock, Tesinigh, Utchowig, and
Cepowig. It is difficult to locate these towns correctly on a modern map;
the foregoing names are evidently highly conventionalized forms of the
original native terms. Unfortunately Smith furnishes but little
information regarding these people beyond a description of their bearing,
size, and implements, and a general statement as to their habitat and
their enemies, the most formidable of the latter being the famous "Massawolneckes."
Alsop (1666) says that the Christian inhabitants of
Maryland regarded the Susquehanocks as "the most noble and heroic nation
of Indians that dwell upon the confines of America," and that the other
Indians "by a submissive and tributary acknowledgment" held them in like
esteem, for he adds that being for the most part great warriors, they
"seldom sleep one summer in the quiet arms of a peaceful rest, but keep
(by their present power, as well as by their former conquest) the several
nations of Indians round about them, in a forceable obedience and
subjection." He declares also that men, women, and children in both summer
and winter went practically naked; that they painted their faces in red,
green, white, and black stripes; that their skins were naturally light in
color, but were changed to a dark cinnamon hue "by the several dyeings of
roots and barks"; that the hair of the head was black, long, and coarse,
but that the hair growing on other parts of the body was removed by
pulling it out hair, by hair; that some tattooed their bodies, breasts,
and arms with outlines of beasts and other objects.
Hitherto no information concerning a clan system among
the Susquehanna has been available in ethnologic literature; but in the
Proceedings of the Council of Maryland for 1636-1667 (pp. 421, 550) the
names of the "Sassgsahannough" chiefs and delegates, and also those of the
several clans to which they belonged, appear in the minutes of a treaty
concluded at Spes Utia, May 16, 1661, in behalf of the Lord Proprietary of
Maryland and of the Susquehanna Indians, and at a conference held at St
Johns, June 29, 1666. The names of the Susquehanna delegates to the former
were:
Dahadaghesa of the great Torripine family,
Sarangararo of the Wolf family,
Waskanecqua of the Ohongeoquena nation,
Kagoregago of the Unquehiett nation,
Saraqundett of the Kaiquariegahaga nation,
Uwhanhierelera of the Usququhaga nation, and
Waddon hago of the
Sconondihago nation;
but among the
signatures appears the name Andra Sonque without that of his clan or
nation. It was at this treaty that the Maryland authorities agreed to send
50 soldiers to aid the Susquehanna against the
Seneca (here called Cynaco,
Nayssone, or Naijssone), in consequence of which Capt. Odber was ordered to
cause some "spurs and flankes" to be laid out for the defense of the
Susquehanna fort and inmates, "whom you are upon all occasions to assist
against the assaults of their enemies." At the conference of June 29,
1666, at St Johns, Wastahanda Hariguera of the Terrapin or Turtle clan,
and Gosweinquecrakqua of the Fox clan, war chiefs of the Susquehanna,
brought Wanahedana to justice, "lest the crime of one be imputed to the
whole tribe," and asked assistance from the governor "at this time," for
they had lost a large number of men who were ranging about the head of
Patapsco and other rivers to secure the English plantations from the
Seneca, who, they declared, were resolved to storm the Susquehanna fort in
the following August and then fall upon the English; and they also agreed
to deliver the " King of Potomack his two sonns" to Major Goldsmyth. At
the former treaty it was stipulated also that 6 Susquehanna warriors
should act as dispatch bearers.
On July 28, 1663, the Maryland authorities gave to
Civility and the rest of the Susquehanna Indians 2 barrels of powder, 200
pounds of lead, and their own choice of one of two small cannon. At this
conference Wastahandow of the Turtle clan declared that it was not "the
Sasquesahanoughs" but the Seneca who began the war, for the Seneca had
killed the Susquehanna ambassadors and had robbed there of 70 belts of
wampum; and he declared that their enemies (such of the Iroquois tribes as
were engaged in making war on them) mustered about 1,460 warriors, while
the Susquehanna had about 700 fighting men.
In the writings of Swedish and Dutch authors many
references are found to a people called therein Minquas, Minquosy, or
Machoeretini (in De Laet), Mengwe, or Mingo, names which were evidently
bestowed on them by the Algonquians of the lower Delaware river and bay.
It would seem that in the earliest application of the names Susquehanna
and Minqua they denoted a tribe or group of allied tribes which from 1608
to 1633 waged relentless war against the Algonquian tribes on and about
the lower portion of Potomac river and Delaware river and bay. De Vries
says that on Feb. 11, 1633, when he and a small crew were in the Delaware
river opposite Ft Nassau, 50 Indians came over the river from the fort and
spoke to him and his men. He states that these were Minquas dwelling among
"the English of Virginia," and that, numbering 600 warriors, they had come
on a warlike expedition, but that they were friendly with him and his men;
that while in that immediate vicinity two days later, three Indians of the
Armewamen carne to him and reported that they were fugitives from the
Minquas, who had killed sonic of their people, plundered them of their
corn, and burned their houses, and that these Minquas had killed 90 men of
the Sankiekens (Sankhikans); also that the Minquas had returned to their
own country. But subsequent to this period these two names, Susquehanna
and Minqua, especially the latter, had acquired a broader and more
comprehensive signification. Van der Donck, writing prior to 1653, says,
"With the Minquas we include the Senecas, the Maquas, and other inland
tribes."
On July 24, 1608, Capt. John Smith began his
exploration of Susquehanna river, completing the work on Sept. 8 of the same
year. As already stated, in his text he calls the Indians he found
inhabiting the river, Sasquesahannocks, but on his map he recorded the
name Sasquesahanoughs, and the name of their town Sasquesahanough. The
exact situation of this town is not definitely known, but a satisfactory
approximation may be made. Smith said that it was "two days' journey
higher than our barge could pass for rocks." The rocks are at Port
Deposit, Md., and 40 or 50 m. above this point may be tentatively taken as
the approximate situation of the town. Smith locates it on the a. side of
the Susquehanna, a short distance above the confluence of a feeder from
the w. side. It is matter of record that a "Sasquehanocks new-town"
existed about 1648 where "some falls below hinder navigation," and that in
1670Augustine IIerrman located Canooge, "the present Sassquahana Indian
fort," on the west bank just above the "greatest fall" (the present
Conewago falls); and they also had a palisaded town at the mouth of the
Octoraro, probably as early as 1662, so that the Susquehanna of 1608 may
probably have been in the vicinity of the Conewago falls. In Smith's text
a remarkable silence is maintained as to the names of any other towns of
the Susquehanna, but on his map he places five other towns with king's
houses: Attaock, Quadroque, Tesinigh, Utchowig, and Cepowig, and with the
single exception of Cepowig, which is located on the east side of the main
stream of Willowbye's river, all these towns are located on the
Susquehanna or on some of its affluents. Since no Indians were found along
the upper portion of the west shore of the bay, there can be little doubt
that Cepowig was a Susquehanna town, for an early writer in a general
recapitulation of names and situations of tribes says that "the
Sasquesahanoes are on the Bolus river." The "Bolus river" of Smith is the
present Patapsco, which flows into Chesapeake bay at Baltimore. This would
seem to indicate that Cepowig, located by Smith on Willowbye's river,
which is apparently only a continuation of what is to-day Bush river
(unless it was placed there instead of on the Patapsco by an engraver's
inadvertence), was at all events well within the "Sasquesahanough"
country. Under the circumstances it is a question whether these five
towns, which were not mentioned in the text of Smith, are to be regarded
as Susquehanna towns rather than as the chief towns of allied or
neighboring tribes. With the meager data supplied by their position on the
Smith map, it is difficult to assign them a definite geographical position
on a modern map. One of the interpretations of the indicative marks places
Cepowig in the vicinity either of Westminster, Md., or of Gettysburg, Pa.;
Quadroque about Middletown; Tesinigh about Lebanon; Attaock about York;
and Utchowig in the region of Carlisle. The other broader and, perhaps,
intended view would locate Attaock in the region of Juniata river,
Quadroque at the forks at Northumberland, Tesinigh on the North branch in
the region of Wyoming, and Utchowig on the West branch in the vicinity of
Lockhaven. Marked with "king's houses," they may have indicated the seats
of neighboring tribes, whether allied or hostile.
From the data found in Smith it is difficult to form a
satisfactory estimate of the population of the Susquehanna at that early
date. Smith said that the "Sasquesahannocks" could muster "near 600 able
and mighty men," who were entrenched in palisaded towns "to defend them
from the Massawomeckes, their mortal enemies." To these people, whom Smith
designated by the name "Sasquesahanough," modernized to Susquehanna, the
Dutch and Swedes on Delaware r. and bay applied the name Minqua, or
Mincquaas, with its many variants, which the English adopted with a wider
and varying application, under the form Mingo.
De Vries, in Feb., 1633, while cruising in the vicinity
of Ft Nassau on Delaware river, encountered a detachment of 50 Indians
from a larger body consisting of 600 men. Crossing the river from the
fort, they came alongside his yacht and spoke to him and his men in a
friendly manner. He learned that they were Minquas who dwelt "among the
English of Virginia," and who had come on a warlike expedition. The next
day, while sailing up the river, he met three Armewamen Indians who
declared to him that they were fugitives from the Minquas who had killed
some of their people, as above mentioned. The trio had left the main body
of their people with the women and children five or six hours journey
distant; and had come there to learn in what way the Minqua had gone; they
declared that 90 men of the Sankhikans (Sankiekens) bad been killed by
these Minqua and that the Minqua had returned to their country (Coll. N.
Y. Hist. Soc., 2 s., iii, pt. i, 31-32, 1857). This indicates that the
people called Minqua or Sasquesalianna in 25 years had not lost their
military strength, although they were engaged in continual wars with the
Algonquian tribes on Delaware river and bay, and on the Potomac. Hence it
would appear that Smith's statement that they could muster in 1608 nearly
600 men did not include those belonging to the five towns exclusive of
Sasquesahanough. They were in 1608 waging war on the Massawomeckes.
On Aug. 18, 1616, Captain Hendricksen reported to the
New Netherland Provinces his discovery of certain lands, a bay and three
rivers, lying from 38° to 40° north lat.; that there he traded for "sables,
furs, robes, and other skins," and that he also traded for and bought from
the inhabitants, the Minquaes, "three persons, being people belonging to
this company, which three persons were employed in the service of the
Mohawks and Machicans, giving for
them kettles, beads, and merchandise" (N. Y. Doe. Col. Hist., i, 14,
1854). This is perhaps the first notice of the name Minqua on record, if
its use on the map accompanying this report be excepted. The map bears
date 1614 (Oct. 11) and is the famous "Carte Figurative." It is the first
known attempt to portray geographically the Susquehanna river and valley
with the tribes of Indians dwelling in the region covered; the map, in
fact, includes the region now within New York and Pennsylvania, and
represents the Susquehanna as an outlet of Lake Ontario. A legend on the
map says that the data concerning the location of rivers and the position
of the tribes were obtained from Kleynties and his comrade, which they had
acquired in an expedition from the Mohawk (Maquaas) into the interior and
along the New river (Susquehanna) downward to the Ogehage, who are
identified as the "enemies of the aforesaid northern tribes"; and,
further, that the positions of the tribes (Sennecas, Gachoos,
Capitannasses, and Jottecas) should be indicated as considerably farther
to the west. On the abovementioned map the "Sennecas" are located some
distance north of a branch of the river which was evidently intended to
represent Chemung river of to-day; lower down, on what represented the
West branch of the Susquehanna, on the south side, the "Gachoos" are
placed, with four designs denoting lodges (towns); on what probably
represents the present Juniata river, on the north side, some distance
from the confluence with the Susquehanna, the Capitannasses are placed,
with seven designs denoting towns arranged some distance apart along the
course of the river; south and slightly farther west into the interior the
"Iottecas" (Jottecas) are placed, with five designs representing towns set
close together; and much farther down, on the west side, a short distance
below the confluence of a branch on the east side, probably Conestoga
creek, the "Mincquaas" are placed, with four palisaded towns, three of
which are marked with two towns and one with four. The name "Mincquaas"
occurs on the east side of the Susquehanna a short distance above the
branch last mentioned, but without any designs denotive of lodges or
towns. The four palisaded towns were probably not far from the present
Conewango river and falls of the Susquehanna. This disposition of the
tribes on the Susquehanna shows that the name "Mincquaas" was originally
applied specifically to the people who dwelt in the same general position
as those whom Smith called "Sasquesahanoughs." The Mohawk (Maquaas), with
five closely set designs of lodges, are placed on the north side of what
purports to be an affluent of Lake Ontario, in a relatively correct
geographical position; on the opposite side of the river occurs the name "Canoomakers,"
which is apparently misswritten for Caughnawaga. This map exhibits a
noteworthy knowledge of the interior of the region now comprised in New
York and Pennsylvania, and of the names and position of the several Indian
tribes inhabiting it. This name later came to include many tribes and
remnants of tribes which dwelt of their own accord or were forced to dwell
in the valley of Susquehanna river, but the period must be known before it
is possible to state the names of the tribes inhabiting that stream. For
during the middle decades of the 16th century all the tribes dwelling
along this river at the time of its discovery were destroyed as political
entities and removed by the Iroquois.
In 1647, learning that the Hurons were being worsted by
the Iroquois, the Susquehanna or Conestoga offered them diplomatic and
military assistance, backed by a force of 1,300 warriors in a single
palisaded town, who had been trained by three Swedish soldiers in the use
of guns and in European tactics (Bozman, Hist. Md., ii, 273, 1837; Proud,
Hist. Pa., i, 111, 1897). This proffered aid was accepted by the hard
pressed Hurons, who sent at once an embassy to the Susquehanna or
Conestoga capital. The Susquehanna lost no time in sending ambassadors,
with suitable wampum belts and presents, to the Iroquois federal council
at Onondaga, for the purpose of ending the war and establishing peace
between the Hurons and the Iroquois; but the Iroquois refused the
mediation and the war continued. On the other hand, the Hurons, sunk in a
hopeless lethargy, did not actively seek to avail themselves of the
Susquehanna aid, and so in less than 18 months they were entirely defeated
and dispersed by the Iroquois.
From about 1630 to 1644 the Susquehanna waged a
relentless war southward from their homes against the Yaomacos, the
Piscataway, and the Patuxent (Bozman, op. cit., if, 161, 1837), and they
created so much trouble for the colonists that Gov. Calvert, in 1642, by
proclamation, declared them public enemies. Holm (Descr. New Sweden, Mem.
Hist. Soc. Pa., in, 157, 1834), says that the Minques or Minckus live on a
"high mountain, very steep and difficult to climb; there they have a fort
or square building, surrounded with palisades, in which they reside.
There they have guns, and small cannon, with which they shoot and defend
themselves, and take them when they go to war." He says that this place
was situated 12 Swedish or 54 English miles from the Swedish settlements,
and that they had forced the surrounding tribes to be subject and
tributary to them, " so that they dare not stir, much less go to war
against them."
In 1652, having maintained for a number of years
friendly intercourse with their European neighbors, the Susquehanna, in
the presence of a Swedish commissioner, through their chiefs, Sawahegeh,
Auroghteregh, Scarhuhadigh, Rutchogah, and Nathheldaneh, ceded to Maryland
all their territory from the Patuxent river to Palmer's island, and from
Choptank river to the north east branch, north of Elk river.
Early in Apr. 1663, the
Onondaga, Cayuga, and
Seneca,
in pressing more vigorously the war which had been waging for a number of
years, dispatched an expedition of 800 men against Susquehanna itself
(properly called Andastoe, by the Jesuit Relations). The narrative is
indefinite as to the situation of the objective point of the expedition.
Erroneously adopting the geography of the "Carte Figurative," it states
that this Iroquois army embarked on Lake Ontario, and near one of its
extremities came to a large river leading without rapids or falls to the
very gates of Susquehanna (Andastogue). On arriving there, after a voyage
of more than 100 leagues on the river, they found the town defended on one
side by the stream and on the others by trunks of large trees; it was
flanked by two bastions constructed in accordance with European methods,
and was also furnished with some pieces of artillery.
The Iroquois consequently abandoned the idea of making
an assault. In attempting to outwit the Susquehanna by a transparent ruse,
25 of their men were admitted into the fort; but these were at once
seized, placed on scaffolds in sight of their own army, and burned to
death. The humiliated Iroquois force retired to act on the defensive. At
home the Iroquois tribes were at this time menaced by three scourges their
Susquehanna (Conestoga) enemies, the smallpox (which was carrying off not
only women and children but many men, thus leaving, it is said, their
villages nearly deserted and their lands untilled), and, consequently, by
famine. The situation of the Susquehanna fort at this date was probably
above the falls at Conewango, and may have been the Canooge of Herrman's
map of 1673.
Brebeuf (Jes. Rel. 1635, 33, 1858) rejoices that the
Huron or Wendat tongue, which he thoroughly understood, was spoken by
about 12 populous sedentary tribes dwelling south of the French
settlements. Of these the following are of interest in the present
connection: The Andastoerrhonons, the Scahentoarrhonons, the Rhiierrhonons,
and the Ahouenrochrhonons. From the long and important list of tribes
found in the Jesuit Relation for 1640 (35,1858), which is apparently a
slightly enlarged enumeration of the one just cited, it is found that the
name Akhrakvaeronon appears in place of Scahentoarrhonons. These four
tribes have been identified as the Conestoga, the people of the Great
Flats or Wyoming, the Erie, and the Wenroh, the last a tribe which
migrated to and became incorporated with the Hurons in 1639. The
Scahentoarrhonons were probably the Massawomeckes of Smith. The name
itself is derived from other forms, among which are Andasto'eronon and
Gandasto`eronon, which appear in Mohawk as Ganastohgeronon. Du Creux, in
his Latin map of 1660, translates this name by "Natio perticarum," meaning
simply " Pole or (roof-) pole tribe." This is not satisfactory, as no
account is taken of the incorporated verb -o', 'to be immersed,'
'to be contained in'; and there is a question as to the identification of
the nominal element as kanasta', 'roof-pole,' for ka'nestǎ',
'mud,' 'clay,' is equally possible. Conestoga or Conestogues is the
Anglicized form of the French spellings.
In 1615 Champlain sent his interpreter Brule to one of
the allied tribes of the Hurons, which lived on the Susquehanna three days
journey from the Seneca (meaning the four western Iroquois tribes). From
the Bear nation of the Hurons, Champlain learned that this allied tribe
was very warlike and possessed only three among more than twenty towns
which were hostile to them; that the year before they had captured three
Dutchmen who were assisting their enemies and whom they permitted to go
without harm, for they thought the Dutchmen were French, the allies of the
Hurons. Brulé did not report to
Champlain until 1618, and from him the latter learned that the chief town
of the tribe visited by Brulé, called
Carantouan, was defended by 800 warriors, was only 7 days journey from
where the Dutch traded, in lat. 40°, and that along the river below it
were "many powerful and warlike nations, carrying on wars against each
other." On the Champlain map of 1632 this tribe is called "Carantouanais."
A noteworthy correspondence is found in the number of towns assigned to
this tribe by Champlain and the number assigned to the Massawomeckes by
Smith. Champlain said that the tribe had three towns, although he named
only one after Brulé reported to him;
and Smith on his map under the legend "Massawomecks" places three kings'
houses, which are evidently intended for towns, as he names one
Massawomeck. Concerning the Massawomeckes, Smith learned that "beyond the
mountains from whence is the head of the river Patawomeke, the savages
report, inhabit their most mortal enemies, the Massawomekes, upon a great
salt water," and that this people were a great nation and very populous;
and that "the heads of all those rivers, especially the Pattawomekes, the
Pautuxuntes, the Sasquesahanocks, the Tockwoughes, are continually
tormented by them. While exploring Chesapeake bay he met 7canoes full of
these Indians; and judging by their "targets, baskets, swords, tobacco
pipes, platters, bows and arrows," and other things, he decided that "they
much exceeded them of our parts." Noting their dexterity in the management
of their canoes, "made of the barks of trees, sewed together with bark,
and well luted with gum," he concluded that they were seated on some great
water. He says that they were "much extolled" by the Nanticoke and their
neighbors. He also learned that they had "so many men that they made warre
with all the world," and that the Massawomeckes were "higher up in the
mountains." These references to the presence of mountains in the country
of the Massawomeckes well describe the mountainous regions of upper
Susquehanna river and its branches. As Scahentowanen in "
Scahentowanenrhonon" signifies 'It is a very great plain,' and was the
Huron and Iroquois name of the Wyoming plain or flats in Pennsylvania, it
seems probable that Heckewelder's suggested derivation of the name Wyoming
from a Delaware or cognate term is merely a translation of the Iroquoian
term. Heckewelder says, Mcheuómi
or M'cheuwámi "signifieth
extensive level flats," and because of the large falls on this river, it
is called, he says, "M'chweuwami Sipu" by the Delawares, and "Quahonta" by
the Six Nations, which is the nominal stem in the Iroquoian term in
question. The locative of the Delaware term would be Mcheuóming,
or Mcheuwáming, meaning 'at the
great flats, or plain,' which the English have changed into "Wyoming." The
animate plural added to the first of these examples would produce
M'cheaómek, which Smith heard from
another dialect as "Massawomecke." This seems to confirm the suggestion
that the "Massawomecks" of Smith were identical with the "Scahentoarrhonons"
of the Jesuit Relation for 1635. It has been seen that Akhrakvaeronon, of
which Atra'kwae'ronnons is a well-known dialectic variation in Huron (in
which kh=t), is a synonym of .Scahentoarrhonons, and so it is
possible to show that these people of Wyoming were destroyed by the
Iroquois in 1652. Two entries in the Journal des PP. Jésuites
for 1652 explain this; the entry for June 5 says that "the Iroquois,
having gone during the winter in full force against the
Atra'kwae'ronnons or Andasto'e'ronnons, had had the worst of
it," but that for July 3 says the news was "the capture of Atra'kwa'e [=Atra'kwaye]
by the Iroquois Nations, to the number of a thousand. They have carried
off 5 or 6 hundred chiefly men. The Mohawk lost in this expedition 10 men;
the other cantons, some 20, some 30 all together, 130." The identification
of Atra'kwa'e with Andasto'e' in the foregoing citations is
probably due to a misconception of the relator. From the Journal des PP. Jésuites
for 1651 (Apr. 22) it is learned that in the autumn of 1650, 1,500
Iroquois had attacked the Neutrals and had taken one of their towns, but
that the Neutrals, led by the Tohontaenrat, the Deer tribe of the Hurons,
named the White-eared, fell on the retreating Iroquois and killed or
captured 200; that, notwithstanding this reverse, 1,200 Iroquois returned
thither during the winter of 1651 to avenge their loss. The Journal for
Apr. 7, 1652 says only 600 Iroquois struck this blow. In the same
Journal for 1652 (Apr. 19) it is stated that the Neutrals have formed an
alliance with those of Andasto'e' (=Kanasto'ge) against the Iroquois; that
the Seneca, going to war against the Neutrals, had been defeated, and as a
consequence the women had been compelled to leave Sonnontouan (the Seneca
capital) and withdraw to the Cayuga; and that during
the winter the Mohawk had gone to war toward Andasto'e', the result being
unknown. The Jesuit Relation for 1651 (chap. ii, ed. 1858) gives the
information that the Iroquois for a year past had turned their arms
against the Neutrals and had met with some success, taking two frontier
towns, in one of which were 1,600 men. One was taken in the autumn of
1650, and the other in the early spring of 1651; the destruction of life
was great, especially among the aged and the children, and the number of
captives, particularly young women, was very large. This loss brought
about the total dispersal of the Neutrals, but did not result by any means
in the total extinction of the people of that nation, as the following
citation from the Journal des PP. Jésuites for 1653 clearly indicates,
when considered in connection with the reputed alliance of the Neutrals
with the Conestoga, mentioned above, giving some insight into the state of
affairs in regard to the Erie and allied tribes southward. "All the
Algonquian Nations are assembling, with what remains of the Tobacco Nation
and of the Neutral Nation, at Ayotonatendiye [i. e., At Potawatomi
Place], 3 days' journey above the Sault Skiaye [i. e., Sault Ste Marie], toward
the south. Those of the Tobacco Nation have wintered at Teyaonto'ruyi [i.
e., At Michilimackinac]; the Neutrals, to the number of 800, at Sken'chioye
[i. e., At the Place of the Foxes, being south of Detroit], toward Teyo'chanontian [Detroit]; these two nations are to betake themselves next
autumn to the "Place of the Potawatomi, where even now they number a
thousand men, to wit, 400 Potawatomi, 200 Ottawa or Cheveux Relevez, 100
Winnebago, people from the Nation of A'chawi, 200 Chippewa, and 200
Missisauga and allies. A'chawi is the one who is directing all this
affair." (In the italicized native words the letter y has been substituted
for the inverted comma of the original.) Of all the tribes which at this
period became involved in war with the Iroquois, the Erie and allies
apparently do not appear in this complot of the enemies of the Iroquois.
But it is very probable that the Erie here appear under the name Achawi,
or A'chawi, which was seemingly their Algonquian appellation. And it may
be that this name is a form of Smith's Ulchowig, the final q being the
animate plural sign. It is evidently a translation of the Iroquois-Huron
name Rhiierrhonon and cognate forms (see
Erie), which signify, apparently,
'People of the place of panthers,' or possibly of wildcats, the name being
generic for both of these animals. For wildcat, Smith gives utchunquoyes,
Strachey gives utchoonggwai for a cat or a wild beast much larger and
spotted
black under the belly like a lynx, and uttacawai for "lyon," which of
course was probably intended for panther, and the native terms employed by
him are evidently cognate.
From the Jesuit Relation for 1647-48, in
reference to the Rhiierrhonon, it is learned that the south shores of Lake Erie
were formerly inhabited "by certain tribes whom we call the Nation of the
Cat; they have been compelled to retire far inland to escape their
enemies, who are farther west"; and further that they had a number of
fixed towns, as they cultivated the soil. This would indicate that before
this date the Erie had been forced eastward into the region along the west
branch of the Susquehanna or the upper waters of the Allegheny. Now, it
was from this latter region that the
Wenrohronon, an allied tribe of the
Neutrals, emigrated in 1639 to the Huron country. Of these, Father Du
Peron wrote, Apr. 27, 1639: " We have a foreign nation taking refuge here
both on account of the Iroquois, their enemies, and of the epidemic, which
is still causing them great mortality; nearly all of them are baptized
before death." And Bressani (Relation for 1653, Thwaites' ed., 39, 141),
writing of the Wenrohronon (Ahouenrochrhonons), said that they had then
recently come into the Huron country and "had formerly traded with the
English, Dutch, and other heretical Europeans." At this point it may be
well to cite some information concerning a little-known people, called the
Black Minquas, who apparently dwelt in the region now under consideration,
that south east of Lake Erie and the Juniata, and the west branch of the
Susquehanna. Some interesting data are obtained from an extended legend
appearing on Herrman's map of Virginia and Maryland, prepared in 1670 and
issued in l673. Beyond the Alleghany mountains all the streams flow westward
either into "the Bay of Mexico or the West Sea," especially the first one
discovered, "a very great River, called the Black Mincquaas River" (i. e.,
the Ohio), whereon lived the tribe of that name. There was a branch (the
Conemaugh) of the "Black Mincquaas River" opposite a branch (the Juniata)
of the Susquehanna river, which entered the main stream of the Susquehanna
some leagues above the "Sassquahana forte," placed by the map on the right
bank near "the greatest fal,
where formerly those Black Mincquaas came over as far as Delaware to
trade"; but that "the Sassquahana and Sinnicus Indians went over and
destroyed that very great nation." Van der Donck mentions these Indians,
assigning them a general position and stating: "The beavers are mostly
taken far inland, there being few of them near the settlements particularly by the Black Minquas, who
are thus named because they wear a black badge on their breast, and not
because they are really black." One other reference to these people is
found in Beekman's Letter of Dec. 23, 1662 (Pa. Archives, 2d s., vii, 695,
1878), wherein the statement is made that 5 Minquas (Susquehanna) chiefs
informed him that they expected shortly the assistance of 800 Black
Minquas, of whom 200 had already arrived, so that they were fully resolved
to carry the war into the country of the Seneca and to attack their forts;
and they requested that the white people furnish them with munitions of
war when payment was made for them. Hazard (Annals of Pa., 2d s.,
342,1850) evidently errs in calling these allies of the Susquehanna
"Swedish Minquas," probably because he did not know that the Erie or some
of their allied tribes bore this name.
It is thus seen that the number and position of the tribes marked on the
"Carte Figurative" confirm in large measure the view that the names of
places with kings' houses placed on Smith's map under the general rubric "Sasquesahanoughs"
were those of independent tribes or of the chief towns of such tribes in
the valley of the Susquehanna. It was perhaps the lack of definite
knowledge concerning them that compelled Smith to be silent about them in
his text. With the final subjugation of the Susquehanna, representing the
remnants of the tribes dwelling above them, in 1676, this period of the
history of the Susquehanna valley is closed.
Subsequent to the year 1700 the valley of the Susquehanna became the
habitat of many of the tribes subject to the Iroquois. The
Shawnee,
Conoy,
Nanticoke,
Delawares,
Munsee,
Mahican,
Saponi, Tutelo,
Tuscarora, and 12
or 15 other tribes were settled here at one time or another under the
jurisdiction of the Five Nations.
See also Conestoga, Erie, Meherrin, Minqua, Neutrals, and
their respective synonyms.
