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.
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 Mahoning (kwësh-kwëshelxus means "hog" in the Unami dialect)." 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. 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. 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.
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.
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). 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.
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," 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.