Would you be surprised to know that the Native American tribe known as the Susquehannocks never referred to themselves by that name?
Naming the Susquehannocks
Although the Susquehannocks were essential figures in the early history of the European expansion in the Susquehanna River Valley, very little is known about them, not even their name.
It was Captain John Smith on his 1608 voyage up the Chesapeake Bay that first recorded the name “Sasquesahannocks” referring to the 60 Native Americans who came down the river to the Bay for trade. Smith received the name from his Algonquin-speaking guide, Tockwoghs. He said it meant “People of the Muddy River.”
However, regionally Susquehannock was not the agreed upon name. The Lenape called them “Minquas,” which translates to “treacherous,” which was an obvious reflection of the raids the Susquehannocks had made on the Lenape during the 17th century.
Birth of the Conestoga
The French had yet another name for the Susquehannocks. They called them “Andaste” or “Gandastogues,” which means “the people of the blackened ridge pole.” This is thought to be a reference to the conflicts in which the Susquehannocks were involved. Eventually, Gandastogues became Anglicized into “Conestogas,” the name which these Native Americans were known by in Lancaster County during the 18th century.
A similar theory is that the name Conestoga came from the Iroquoian word, Kanastoge, which means “place of the upright pole.”
Yet another theory is their name came from one of their few remaining villages known as Conestoga Town or locally referred to as Conestoga Indian Town.
What do you think?
Click here to learn if the Susquehannock Indians were really the giants John Smith said they were.
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Please explain the Paxton Boys.
You can read more here about them. https://unchartedlancaster.com/2019/12/27/lancasters-darkest-moment-the-massacre-of-the-conestoga-indians/
The Paxton Boys are the militia of
Derry and Paxton churches. The alarm went out that cabins along the frontier in Pennsylvania were being burned, children grabbed by their feet and their brains knocked out on the cabins they were born in. Pregnant mothers had babies cut from their belly’s and died in a pool of blood. The Paxton boys followed the native Americans to Conestoga and butchered the native Americans and the raids stopped. This is a controversy in this day and age that you will not get both sides of the story. It goes much deeper than this, but I can understand why people were upset during this time period on both sides. The French and Indian War was going on during this time and there were brutalities on both sides but no one was prosecuted. No one in Lancaster County would testify against the Paxton Boys they later Marched on Philadelphia to have their rights heard.