Timeline story

Native

Susquehannock and the Ohio Valley Door

The Susquehannock (also Andaste / Minqua / later Conestoga) were an Iroquoian people of the lower Susquehanna who dominated mid-Atlantic fur trade in the early 1600s and fought the Haudenosaunee through the Beaver Wars.

After Iroquois conquest around 1675–76, their power collapsed and survivors scattered or were absorbed. That hinge helped empty and reopen the Ohio Valley as contested “middle ground”—the hunting country Shawnee, Mingo, and others later claimed, and the same corridor Virginia traders and long hunters followed into Kentucky.

Their story is not a Kentucky village tale, but one of the eastern Beaver Wars shocks that remade who could hunt south of the Ohio.

Cite this story

Published . Last revised .

Chicago

Snowden, Shannon. "Susquehannock and the Ohio Valley Door." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 30, 2026. Last revised September 30, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/susquehannock-and-the-ohio-valley-door/.

MLA

Snowden, Shannon. "Susquehannock and the Ohio Valley Door." Kentucky History Drive, published 30 Sept. 2026, last revised 30 Sept. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/susquehannock-and-the-ohio-valley-door/.

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