Powhatan, chief of a confederacy of Algonquian tribes, ruled by this man whose name meant something like "at the falling waters" after his village, which was situated above Richmond Falls, had something in common with his Susquehanna enemies, they sought refuge above navigable river ways. Known to these people, including Powhatan—who was bearded like many Indian chiefs of the Eastern seaboard and whose daughter looked like a European girl—was a past, either recent [Soto's Entrada and various earlier European expeditions from 1492 through 1566] or distant [perhaps Norse raids or Templar crusades] in which those who settled on navigable waterways fell prey to some terrible fate, perhaps simply a tidal surge or hurricane.
Originally, when researching the names of various tribes, the Conestoga, also known as the Susquehanna Indians, a "Longhouse" people, with many parallels in religion, housing and culture to Norse folk, had a name with no origin I could find in 2009. So I had the characters in the science-fiction novel out of which grew the Plantation America history project, name this river, after which the tribe was named, the Pushing River, based on its relationship to the Shellfish-waters [Chesapeake] at the foot of the falls where now a damn bars the way. As it turns out, I wasn't far off, having studied river-naming conventions among the regional tribes.
Susquehanna
"river through Pennsylvania, named for a native people who lived along the southern reaches of it at the time of European contact, "An Algonquian name for an Iroquoian people; it has been translated as 'people at the falls' or 'roily water people'" [Bright]."
It is of interest that the Susquehanna tribe doubled in numbers every 20 years after European contact when they should have been dying like flies from introduced diseases. They also served as slave catchers for Plantation masters, bought cannons and placed them in their fortress from Lord Calvert, Governor of Maryland, and bought English slave boys with hides as late as 1676.
Further, no racial difference other than size, is noted about these Indians in comparison to their European chroniclers.
Was this a tribe of runaway sailors and slaves?
Was this a tribe of amalgamated remnants of disease-reduced tribes?
Might this tribe have been a combination of both?
What we do know, is that they, their most tenacious enemies, and their cousins in the Allegheny Mountains to south [Cherokee] and north [Iroquois] chose to build their windowed cabins, Norse-style longhouses and walled settlements above the falls of whatever river served them, and that such destinations, a home above the falls, was the very goal of those runaway European American slaves who sought to remain free of the slaver's gaol and remains to this day, the hillbilly haven of latter day America.
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I immediately felt a small measure of relief from the dimbulb masses on social tedium crying for war with Iran when I saw the name Susquehanna. I was a travelling project super for Abercrombie & Fitch in 2001 and did a store in Lancaster, PA. You only get to fly home to Cali every 3 weeks so I was always looking for amusement. I'd drive around the countryside buying pies at honor stands on the side of the road, visiting all the covered bridges and doing all the things a hard charging former rock star should be doing. I found a kayak place that gave serious training.....like, I know how to upright the kayak by doing a barrel roll kind of thing if you get capsized, how to crawl back in, if ejected, by using the oar and one of those arm floaty things like kids use. The river is just stunningly beautiful. We didn't do any fishing but the guide showed us a special bend in the river that made a shallow cove teaming with rainbow trout, but a variety that were only in that spot. After my tile guy, Amish dude, became my cocaine dealer, I went kayaking a lot. Beautiful place. The Amish don't do many drive bys so it was much calmer than LA. I'll always remember and savor that memory. Nice to hear a little of the history. I was working at the mall building the Hollister store there when 9-11 happened. I sent everyone home early, then they shut the mall. I was with the mall manager & a few of the security guys when word was given one of the planes was right over us, supposedly headed to Harrisburg. We just knew we were going to be toast so I quickly hit the liquor store and we fortified our resolve. It's funny, it turns out, that I had landed at BWI when the perps (if they existed) did. I rented a white Mitsubishi Gallant there, like the perps did. I had gone to Canada the same weekend the perps did and reentered near Niagara as they did as well. I was never questioned by the FBI which I found odd. But when it was revealed the whole thing was a sham then it made sense. Have a nice day bro. Please pardon the typos, it's early for me here. It's just after 10. I don't usually get up till 12 or 1. Funny, I just saw one of those lifehacker things saying that if you wanted to help out with the environment to just do less. I had to respond if I did any less I'd be flatlined.
thank you so much for this slice-of-rare life post.