| Lcnaf uri | http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85030821 |
| Organization name | Conestoga indians |
| Other names | Susquehannock |
| Org type | Indian group |
| Bio notes | Sometimes known as Conestoga or Susquihanna, they lived along the river named after them that flows from southern New York to central and eastern Pennsylvania. Spoke an Iroquoian dialect. Their location on the Susquehanna River was an advantageously located trading spot because it connected western fur sources with eastern trade goods. The Susquehannock feuded with the Iroquois for much of the 17th century, but hostilities ceased upon the establishment of the New York-sponsored Indian-White Covenant Chain in 1677. As a result, many Susquehannock dispersed among their Iroquois and Delaware onetime-enemies. Through the Iroquois Wars with Canada as well as disease epidemics, the Susquehannock population declined sharply around this time. In about 1690, a few returned to their homeland and established Conestoga village (“Place of the Upright Pole”) in what is today Lancaster County. This was the location where, alongside other tribes, they famously made a treaty with William Penn in 1701. In 1763, a band of rough backwoods settlers called the “Paxton Boys” attacked the Susquehanna, after which the survivors moved to Ohio and intermarried with Mingo people. |
| Citations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susquehannock;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_Chain;Handbook of the North American Indians |
Travels in Some Parts of North America, in the Years 1804, 1805, & 1806, by Robert Sutcliff