Custaloga (also known as Kustaloga, Tuscologas, Packanke, or Pakanke) was a chief of the Wolf Clan of the Delaware (Lenape) tribe in the mid-18th century. He initially supported the French at the beginning of the French and Indian War, but after Pontiac's War he participated in peace negotiations. He opposed the presence of Catholic missionaries, but later in life he became favorable to the Moravians. Captain Pipe was his nephew and succeeded him as chief.Wellenreuther, Hermann. "The Succession of Head Chiefs and the Delaware Culture of Consent: The Delaware Nation, David Zeisberger, and Modern Ethnography", In A. G. Roeber, ed., Ethnographies and Exchanges: Native Americans, Moravians, and Catholics in Early America. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. 31–48
Biography
Birth and early life
Little is known of the early life of Custaloga. Custaloga's family settled in the Ohio River Valley around 1740, and he may have been born there.C. H. Mitchener, ed. Ohio Annals: Historic Events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys, and in Other Portions of the State of Ohio; Adventures of Post, Heckewelder and Zeisberger; Legends and Traditions of the Kophs, Mound Builders, Red and White Men; Adventures of Putnam and Heckewelder, Founders of the State; Local History, Growth of Ohio in Population, Political Power, Wealth and Intelligence, Dayton, OH: Thomas W. Odell, 1876. He was born as Packanke into the Wolf Clan of his mother. The Lenape had a matrilineal kinship system, in which descent and hereditary leadership were passed through the mother's line. Children were born into the mother's clan and gained their social status there. Custaloga was raised among the Munsee division of the Lenape, which until about 1760 was only loosely associated with the Lenape living to the south and east. The Lenape warrior Keekyuscung once told a Pennsylvania trader that Custaloga was half Mingo.John W. Jordan, ed., "Journal of James Kenny, 1761–1763," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 37 (1913)
Custaloga's Town
Around 1749, when Custaloga was living at Cussewago, (along French Creek, at the present-day site of Meadville, Pennsylvania),Donehoo, George P. A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania. Papamoa Press, 2019 he established a sizeable village at the confluence of French Creek and North Deer Creek in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. This town, known as "Custaloga's Town," or sometimes "Ticastoroga,"Clarence M. Busch, Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896 became his principal seat.Michael N. McConnell, "The search for security: Indian-English relations in the Trans-Appalachian region, 1758-1763," Doctoral dissertation, College of William & Mary, Dept. Arts & Sciences, 1983C. Hale Sipe, The Indian chiefs of Pennsylvania, or, A story of the part played by the American Indian in the history of Pennsylvania: based primarily on the Pennsylvania archives and colonial records, and built around the outstanding chiefs. Ziegler Printing Co., Inc. Butler, PA, 1927 The Seneca warrior Guyasuta is believed to have been buried at Custaloga's Town.Marsha Fleeger, "Researchers believe Seneca leader buried at Custaloga Town," Record-Argus News, July 16, 2018"History Recalled as Guyasuta's Grave Goes to Historical Society," The News-Herald, Franklin, Pennsylvania; Sat, June 26, 1965; p. 8
Affliliation with the French
Custaloga's name is first documented in western Pennsylvania's history in July 1753, when Pennsylvania trader William Trent noted that Custaloga's people were helping the French move their supplies across the portage at Fort Presque Isle.George Washington, "Journey to the French Commandant: Narrative," Founders Online, National Archives. Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 1, 11 March 1748 – 13 November 1765, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976, pp. 130–161.Hunter, William Albert. Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier: 1753–1758, (Classic Reprint). Fb&c Limited, 2018; pp 313-19 Some of the men at Custaloga's Town relocated to Fort Presque Isle and Fort LeBoeuf in order to work for the French in return for corn, clothing and muskets.Grimes, Richard S. The Western Delaware Indian Nation, 1730–1795: Warriors and Diplomats. Lehigh University Press, 2017. On August 15, the French decided to occupy the trading post of John Fraser, an English fur trader who had lived there for several years, and who provided British trade goods to the residents of Custaloga's Town. Custaloga assisted the French by capturing and handing over two traders who had just arrived at Fraser's trading post. Fraser and his employee Willson were forced to flee, and 75 French soldiers took over Fraser's cabin, allowing Custaloga to confiscate Fraser's trade goods. Fraser reported that Custaloga was "made a Captain by the French."
In his journal of 1753, the 21-year-old George Washington describes his arrival at Logstown in November. Washington persuaded the Lenape chiefs at Logstown that they should side with the British in the event of war, and he recommended that they return strings of wampum that the French had given them as a sign of friendship.C. Hale Sipe, The Indian wars of Pennsylvania: an account of the Indian events, in Pennsylvania, of the French and Indian war, Pontiac's war, Lord Dunmore's war, the revolutionary war, and the Indian uprising from 1789 to 1795; tragedies of the Pennsylvania frontier based primarily on the Penna. archives and colonial records, Harrisburg: The Telegraph Press, 1929 At that time, Custaloga was in charge of the wampum and kept the belts at his home in Custaloga's Town. He was in favor of remaining allied with the French, and when Washington visited him, he initially refused to give up the wampum,Richard S. Grimes, "The emergence and decline of the Delaware Indian nation in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio country, 1730--1795," Doctoral Dissertation, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 2005 on the excuse that Shingas had sent no speech for the occasion, and had to be persuaded to do so by Christopher Gist. Washington, Guyasuta and Tanacharison took the wampum to the French commander at Fort LeBoeuf but the French would not accept it.
In February 1754 Custaloga was sent by the French to visit the construction site of a storehouse, built as preparation for the later construction of Redstone Old Fort by William Trent for the Ohio Company. Custaloga reported "a thousand men building a fort there," a significant exaggeration. He also stated that when Trent and his men finished the fort at Red Stone, they planned to "build another at the mouth of that same river," referring to Fort Prince George.Kasecamp, Emily Hager, "Company, Colony, and Crown: The Ohio Company of Virginia, Empire Building, and the Seven Years' War, 1747-1763," Doctoral thesis, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, 2019.
Custaloga was reported to have been present, on the French side, at the Battle of Great Meadows in 1754 and at the Battle of the Monongahela in 1755.Bell, Herbert C., History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including its aboriginal history; the French and British occupation of the country; its early settlement and subsequent growth; a description of its historic and interesting localities, its rich oil deposits and their development; sketches of its cities, boroughs, townships, and villages; neighborhood and family history; portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co., 1890
French and Indian War
In 1757, Custaloga adopted Christian Hochstetler, a 13-year-old Swiss settler who was taken prisoner after Lenape warriors burned his family's home during the Hochstetler massacre on September 19, 1757. In 1762, Christian's father Jacob learned that Christian was living with "King Kastateeloca" and petitioned Governor James Hamilton for assistance in getting his son back.Dan Hochstetler, "The Hochstetler Massacre," Descendents of Jacob Hochstetler website, 2024 Christian was released after a peace treaty negotiated by Colonel Henry Bouquet in October 1764."Examination of (Jacob) Hochstattler," in Richard MacMaster, Samuel Horst and Robert Ulle, Conscience in Crisis: Mennonite and Other Peace Churches in America, 1739-1789, Interpretation and Documents. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2001; pp 125-26
In July 1757, Jesuit Father Claude Francis Virot founded a Catholic mission at Saucunk,History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: Including Its Early Settlement and Progress to the Present Time, with Portraits of Some of Its Prominent Men, and Biographies of Many of Its Representative Citizens, vol 1. Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, United States: Unigraphic, 1889. and was joined for a brief period by Father Pierre Joseph Antonie Rouboud. Custaloga, known for his dislike of missionaries, reportedly became jealous of Virot's influence over the community,James Constantine Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1891. however, and the Jesuit was forced to leave after Fort Duquesne was captured by the British in November, 1758.A. A. Lambing, "Father Virot, A Forgotten Missionary," in Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, vol 3, no 1, January 1930. Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western PennsylvaniaJoseph M. Bausman, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania and Its Centennial Celebration, vol. 1, New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1904Craig Doda, "Native Americans-Early Contact 1600-1771," Historical Marker Database, July 11, 2021
Pontiac's War
William Trent mentions in his journal that from July 22-24, 1763, during the Siege of Fort Pitt, "Custaluga" attended a council meeting with "Gray Eyes, Wingenum, Turtle's Heart and Mamaultee."A. T. Volwiler, "William Trent's Journal at Fort Pitt, 1763," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Dec., 1924, Vol. 11, No. 3, Dec., 1924, pp. 390-413 There is some evidence that Custaloga was among the leaders of the Native American forces defeated at the Battle of Bushy Run in August 1763.
Postwar negotiations