Establishing Conestoga Town

While many Susquehannock relocated among the Haudenosaunee following the 1677 covenant chain agreement, those who turned to the Susquehanna river for refuge would ultimately return to their lands in Pennsylvania in the 1680s, forming small communities in and around what would become Conestoga town. In 1692 French trader Martin Chartier would lead a mixed group of Shawnee and Susquehannock from this area to settle in Cecil county, Maryland, among their old allies. However, after Chartier was arrested in Maryland on suspicion of spying for the French, who were allies of the Shawnee, he made the decision to return to Pennsylvania alongside the Native communities he had married into. Some records state that he had two Native wives, one Shawnee and one Susquehannock. In 1701, William Penn established a treaty with the remaining Conestoga Natives and Martin Chartier’s band, allowing the conglomerate of Shawnee and Susquehannock to cohabitate at Conestoga town, setting aside land for them known as the Manor Township tract in present day Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Penn’s treaty established and recognized a unique intertribal community consisting of peoples Indigenous to Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is from this community that we draw our present-day heritage.

Despite numerous conflicts with Native Americans during this period of time, the community at Conestoga Town remained a safe haven, with many key meetings being held and treaties being signed here. Many tribal nations had political ties to Conestoga town including the Piscataway, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Patawomeck, Lenape, and Shawnee.