Kuskusky, also known as the Kuskuskies Towns, Kuskuskie Towns, or Kuskuskies' Indian Town, with a wide variety of other spellings, were several Native American communities inhabited near New Castle, Mahoning, and Edinburg, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, during the mid-18th century. It was not one town, but three or four contiguous towns of the Mingoes, Lenape, and Seneca, located along the Beaver River, at and above the junction of its east and west branches, the Mahoning River and the Shenango River. It is usually referred to in the plural.Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911
Etymology
Several different origins have been proposed for the name "Kuskusky." In the 1826 captivity narrative of Hugh Gibson, captured by Lenape in July, 1756, he states that he lived in the spring and fall of 1757 at "Kuskuskin, or Hog Town" on the MahoningTimothy Alden, "An Account of the Captivity of Hugh Gibson among the Delaware Indians of the Big Beaver and the Muskingum, from the latter part of July 1756, to the beginning of April, 1759," Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1837 (kwësh-kwëshelxus means "hog" in the Unami dialect)."The Lenape Talking Dictionary The word may also have come from the Seneca koskohsh-ehtoh, meaning "at the falls, by the falls or rapids," referring to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
Establishment
There was very likely a settlement of some kind in the vicinity as early as 1720, initially established by Lenape, Seneca and Shawnee Indians moving west after being displaced from the Susquehanna Valley by growing European settlements and the increasing scarcity of game due to overhunting. A smallpox epidemic in 1733 and a drought in 1741 may have led to the arrival of new groups, under pressure to resettle.Helen Hornbeck Tanner and Miklos Pinther, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, Civilization of the American Indian series; v. 174. 1st ed. Norman: Published for the Newberry Library by the University of Oklahoma Press, 1987; pp 40-41.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 Two Seneca villages with the same name were established before 1742, one at the mouth of the Shenango River and the other at the mouth of Neshannock Creek.Chester Hale Sipe, "The Principal Indian Towns of Western Pennsylvania," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, v. 13, no. 2; April 1, 1930; pp. 104-122 English traders, looking for new sources of skins and furs, established trading posts that, in turn, attracted Natives seeking sources of European trade goods, particularly liquor, which was becoming a fixture in Native American culture by the early 18th century.Peter C. Mancall, Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America, Cornell University Press, 1997.
On 11 November 1747 the Seneca leader Kanuksusy traveled from Kuskusky to Philadelphia with ten young Mingo warriors to deliver news of French activities in western Pennsylvania. These were the first reports to be heard from outside the colony. He later addressed the Pennsylvania Council, declaring that he and his group were representatives of the Six Nations and confirmed its neutrality during King George's War, which had earlier been decided at the Onondaga Council.Chester 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, Butler, Pa.: Ziegler Print. Co., Inc., 1927
In April, 1748 Orontony and 119 Wyandot warriors, together with Miami Indian warriors led by Memeskia, attacked and burned the French Fort St. Philippe (Fort Miami).William A. Hunter, "Orontony," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed June 2, 2021 Orontony then abandoned his community of Junundat and set off for the Ohio valley. About 70 of the warriors and their families settled at Conchake (present-day Coshocton, Ohio). The remainder went farther east to build a new town at Kuskusky.Michael N. McConnell, "Kuskusky Towns and Early Western Pennsylvania Indian History," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 116:33-58
Rivalry with Logstown, 1748
At this time, the rival colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia were competing against Canada to attain control over the Ohio Country, a source of skins and furs and a geographic middle ground between the eastern colonies and the Mississippi and lands west of it. For Canada, control of the Ohio also facilitated commerce and communication with Louisiana. As the prospect of war between Britain and France grew increasingly imminent, Native American inhabitants of the Ohio River Valley were attempting to maintain their autonomy while extracting valuable trade goods from the Europeans. In November, 1747 Scarouady and other Iroquois leaders visited Philadelphia to sign the "Treaty Between the President and Council of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Ohio Indians,""A Treaty between the president and Council of the province of Pennsylvania, and the Indians of Ohio: held at Philadelphia, Nov. 13. 1747," printed by Benjamin Franklin promising a military alliance against the French in exchange for supplies and trade goods. The Council obtained £200 worth of goods and sent Croghan to Logstown in April, 1748 to cement the terms of the treaty and secure the tribes' loyalty to the British. Conrad Weiser was to follow in August with more gifts.
After destroying Fort St. Philippe, Orontony and other Wyandot leaders had no choice but to seek an alliance with the English, but Orontony was anxious to get assurances from Philadelphia that the English would offer military support as well as abundant trade goods, on which the Indians were growing increasingly dependent.Michael N. McConnell, "Peoples 'In Between': The Iroquois and the Ohio Indians, 1720-1768," in Daniel K. Richter and James H. Merrell, eds., Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1987 As Tanacharisson's influence in negotiating terms with Pennsylvania grew, Orontony and other Iroquois leaders in Kuskusky wanted to get the attention of Philadelphia. Soon after Weiser arrived at Logstown, he received a message on 1 September 1748: "Andrew Montour came back from Coscosky with a message from the Indians there to desire of me that the ensuing Council might be held at their town." Tanacharisson insisted that "the Indians at Coscosky were no more Chiefs than themselves, and that last spring they had nothing to eat, & expecting that they shou'd have nothing to eat at our arrival." In any case, Weiser's instructions bound him to negotiate with the Indians at Logstown, and he replied to the request, saying that "the Shawonese and Twightwees would be offended if the Council was to be held at Coscosky.""Colonial Records: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania from the organization to the termination of the proprietary government. v. 11-16 Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania from its organization to the termination of the revolution," vol V: Dec. 1745 to Mar 1754. Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1851 On 15 September Orontony and five other Wyandot chiefs arrived in Logstown and met with Weiser, presenting him with a gift of seven beaver skins. Weiser wrote that they "behav’d like People of good Sense & Sincerity; the most of them are grey-headed."Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. "Conrad Weiser's journal of a tour to the Ohio, August 11, October 2, 1748," in Early Western Journals 1748-1765, Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904 Another chief from Kuskusky, Canajachrera or Oniadagarehra (Broken Kettle or Big Kettle), met Weiser on 19 September. In 1750, after Orontony's sudden death from smallpox, Canajachrera became the acting leader at Kuskusky. In late 1748 the Pennsylvania Council sent the Indians at Kuskusky (Gas-Cagh-Sa-Gey) 12 barrels of gunpowder as a gift and a peace-offering after having rejected their request to hold the council at their town.Brodhead, John Romeyn, Fernow, Berthold, O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey, Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York, vol. 7. New York State Legislature, Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons and Co. 1853
Commerce with English traders By 1748, English traders set up trading posts at each of the Kuskuskies towns, drawing some of the fur trade away from French traders to the north. The demand for rum as a trade item was particularly high, leading to some violence. On October 20, 1748, William Trent wrote to Secretary Richard Peters, describing a murder which took place at Kuskusky: Last night came here from Allegheny one John Hays, who informs us that the night before he left it, the Indians killed one of Mr. [Hugh] Parker's [a factor of the Ohio Company] hands...Mr. Parker had a large quantity of liquor up with him, which he was tying up in his goods, in order to send to the Lower Shawna Town; and the Indians kept pressing into his house...Some he turned out, and others, as they came in, he pushed the door in their faces; upon which they were determined to take his liquor...They brought him wampum, and offered to leave it in pledge; but he refused to let them have it; upon which they took a quantity from him. A great many of them got drunk, who then insisted upon revenge for the ill-treatment he gave them; and accordingly took Parker prisoner and tyed him, and determined to scalp him. But the rest of the whites who were in the town rescued him. He immediately went off...to the Logs Town. The Indians imagined that he was gone into his house. One of them laid wait for him at the door, with his gun. At last, one Brown, one of Mr. Parker's hands, came out...which the Indian took for Parker...and shot him down. This happened at Coscoske.
In spite of this event, Parker maintained his trading post at Kuskusky and in 1749 employed Barnaby Curran to manage it after Brown was killed.
Encounter with Céloron de Blainville, 1749
In the summer of 1749 Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, leading a force of eight officers, six cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, 30 Iroquois and 25 Abenakis,O. H. Marshall, "De Celoron's Expedition to the Ohio in 1749, Magazine of American History, March, 1878, p. 146. moved down the Ohio River on a flotilla of 23 large boats and birch-bark canoes, on his "lead plate expedition," burying lead plates at six locations where major tributaries entered the Ohio and nailing copper plates bearing royal arms to trees to claim the territory for New France. After stopping at the abandoned village of Kittanning, Céloron arrived at Logstown on August 8, 1749. That night, the French were warned that "80 warriors starting from Kaskaské were on the point of arriving; that they came intending to aid their brothers, and to deal us a blow." Céloron ordered his men to prepare for battle, but there was no attack, and instead the warriors appeared at the French camp "and made the accustomed salute. They may have numbered about fifty men." The Jesuit priest Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps, who accompanied Céloron, wrote that "the savages, seeing our bold front and our superior number, quietly withdrew and saluted us very politely in passing before our camp."Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps, "Relation du voyage de la Belle Rivière faite en 1749, sous les ordres de M. de Céloron," in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 73 vols. Cleveland: Burrow Brothers, 1896-1901, vol. 69