THE INDIAN VILLAGE OF SAWKUNK 🐢🦃

Researching Native Indian villages in the Ohio Country has not been an exclusively easy task; on the contrary, I have found it challenging and ending up with more questions than answers. One of the most fascinating and yet least popular of discoveries is the Lenape/Shawnee village called “Sawkunk.” While there are variable examples of its spelling, its etymology is a corruption of the Lenape word “pasakunk” which means “at the fork or stream of water.” In this article, I will present and retain the historical as well as the cultural significance of one of the most elaborate and meticulous Indian village in the Ohio Country.

The first pages of written history that present this village to students and scholars of Indian subjects and discussion is the writings of a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer by the name of Conrad Weiser. This was recorded in 1748 in his journal with the selection of the date of August the 30^th. In this he writes,  “I went to Beaver Creek, an Indian Town, about 8 miles off (from Logstown), chiefly Delawares, the rest Mohocks, to have some belts of wampum made…We both (Weiser and Andrew Montour) lodged at this town at George Croghan‘s trading house.” ¹ As noted, the village was a popular visiting place among white settlers, but it also was a strategic location for staging attacks by chiefs such as Captain Jacobs and Shingas against British colonial settlements. Shingas himself was a resident of the village until sometime after 1759; it was even referred to as “Shinga’s Town.”

A BLOODY AND DARK REPUTATION ENSUES: CAPTIVES

While Sawkunk enjoyed a somewhat friendly reputation, it was also a location to house white prisoners, women as well as children alike. One particular story is that of Marie Le Roy. She was captured by the Lenape during the Penn’s Creek Massacre when she was only twelve. According to her own written narrative, she recounts the following, “accompanied our Indian master to Sackum [Saucunk: Sawkunk], where we spent the winter, keeping house for the savages, who were continually on the hunt.”² In another and more popular account, the famous pioneer Hugh Gibson was working his father’s  farm when it was raided by the Lenape and was abducted and taken to the village where he was forced to live under harsh, but fair conditions. This incident is mentioned in the historical accounts from 1757. ³ At its prime, Sawkunk held over 200 white captives who were all released.

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY:

As early as 1757, yet again, Catholic Jesuits would visit the village and began baptizing the Natives of the area; surprisingly, they were quite successful in gaining converts to the Christian religion.

A priest by the name of Father Virot founded a Jesuit missionary at the village and was joined by other Jesuits for a limited time. According to the most updated research, Father Virot is the only Jesuit priest to have attempted to establish a mission in the entire Ohio Country.

THE MORAVIAN INFLUENCE:

For those unfamiliar, the Moravian Church is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the Christian faith; its origins were created in the Kingdom of Bohemia. With the arrival of many German settlers, this movement craved its way directly into the Pennsylvania colony by a man whose name was Christian Frederick Post who visited the village in the autumn of 1758. He writes the following, “We set out from Kushkushkee for Sankonk. My Company consisted of 25 Horsemen and 15 Foot. We arrived at Sankonk in the Afternoon. The People of the Town were much disturbed at my coming, and received me in a very rough Manner. They surrounded me with drawn Knives in their Hands, in such a Manner that I could hardly get along; running up against me with their Breasts open, as if they wanted some Pretence to kill me. I saw by their Countenances they sought my Death. Their Faces were quite distorted with Rage, and they went so far as to say I should not live long.” ⁴ Consequently, Post met two famous Indian chiefs here: Chief White Eyes and Chief Gelelemend; both of these chiefs were the guardians of the entire village. They did not welcome him in the cordial manner in which he was anticipating; on the contrary, he was warned to exit the village or face fatal consequences. After some months of negotiation and convincing intentions, the two chiefs agreed that Post could visit the grounds and make friendly relations with the rest of the villagers.

However, these friendly associations and relationships were short lived. In late autumn, the French abandoned and burned down Fort Duquesne and left its remains in British control. Shortly after, an assemblage of George Croghan and Andrew Montour (both negotiators and fur traders of the region) crossed between the Allegheny region and met up wih Christian Frederick Post and a man named John Hays, a lieutenant in the French and Indian War; once again, in the historical written narrative, the village of Sawkunk is mentioned again my Croghan in his journal,  ” we were at Beaver Creek [Saucunk] there is thirty-eight houses, all built by the French for the Indians, some with stone chimneys. When all their men is at home they can Send out One Hundred Warriors.”

1759: ENTER COLONEL HUGH MERCER, ARCHITECT OF FORT PITT

As one can read here, there was lots of activity during this period in Pre-Colonial Beaver County. It even caught the attention of a famous Colonel who became good friends with George Washington: Colonel Hugh Mercer. Mercer. Mercer received word from other Indians that there was a growing assemblage of French troops at another village called Kuskusky; consequently, and cleverly, a meeting was held at the newly established Fort Pitt. At this meeting, King Beaver was elected to represent the Delaware people of the village. At this occasion, he spoke the following words, “The Six Nations and you desire that I would sit down and smoke my pipe at Kuskusky. I tell you this that you may think no ill of my removing from Saucunk to Kuskusky, for it is at the great desire of my brothers, the English, and my uncles, the Six Nations, and there I shall always hear your words.” 

After listening, Colonel Mercer retorted, “Your Brothers, the English, desire to see you live in Peace and Happiness, either at Saucunk, Kuskusky, or wherever you think proper, and by no means intend to Limit you to one Place or another.”⁵ In the spring of 1759, the Delawares moved from Saucunk and Kuskuskee to communities on the Muskingum River and the Scioto River in Ohio.

THE ABANDONEMENT&ARRIVAL OF FORT MCINTOSH

The Battle of Bushy Run caused irreversible havoc on Native American life in the Ohio Country. Colonel Bouquet’s expedition marched through the village and witnessed the few remaining log houses and cement chimneys built by the French and ravaged by the villagers themselves. In his journal, he recorded this entry, “October 6: Big Beaver Creek…runs through a rich vale, with a pretty strong current, its banks high, the upland adjoining it very good, the timber tall and young. About a mile below [Beaver Creek’s] confluence with the Ohio stood formerly a large town, on a steep bank, built by the French, of square logs, with stone chimneys, for some of the Shawanese, Delawares and Mingo Tribes, who abandoned it in the year 1758, when the French deserted Fort Du Quesne. Near the fording of Beaver Creek stood about seven houses, which were deserted and destroyed by the Indians after their defeat at Bushy Run (August 6, 1763) when they forsook all their remaining settlements in this part of the country.”

In 1778, the British General Lachlan McIntosh ordered the construction of Fort McIntosh in present-day Beaver, Pennsylvania. The consequence of this fort construction likely eradicated any historical evidence of the villages along the Ohio River in our region. As with other historic Native locations, it long passed into history with only the names to be remembered.

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1. For a more detailed explanation, please review Donehoo, George P. A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania, Papamoa Press, 2019.
2. See Le Roy, Marie; Leininger, Barbara (1759). The Narrative of Marie le Roy and Barbara Leininger, for Three Years Captives Among the Indians. Translated by Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography – via The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography volume 29, 1905.
3. ITimothy 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.

4. 1.  Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. “The journal of Christian Frederick Post, in his journey from Philadelphia to the Ohio, on a message from the government of Pennsylvania to the Delaware, Shawanese and Mingo Indians settled there, and formerly in alliance with the English,” in Early Western Journals 1748-1765, Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904

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5. See Bausman’s History of Beaver County, Vol.1.