Sunday, April 27, 2008

Susquehannocks in Maryland

In preparation for my fellowship, I am re-reading Barry Kent's "Susquehanna Indians". Kent places a Susquehannock village not far from Port Tobacco in 1675.

"By February, 1675, some Susquehannocks were reported living at the Patuxent River in Maryland (Hanna 1911:48). Ostensibly the Susquehannocks had come into Maryland to seek protection from the Seneca, but some officials feared that they actually had a secret alliance with the Seneca and had come into Maryland to discover the trength of the province. That same month the Susquehannock Chief Harignera and several others came before the Assembly to ask where they could live within the province. After much uncertainty and debate it was decided that the Susquehannocks should move above the falls of the Potomac (Maryland Archives II: 429). The Susquehannocks failed to move that far up the Potomac, for in the summer of 1675 they were living at an abandoned Piscataway Indian fort opposite the present-day Mount Vernon. Archeological work at the Piscataway site (Stephenson et al. 1963) has clearly established their presence here" (Kent 2001:47).

-April

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