Editing Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (section)

===Indigenous peoples===
Indigenous peoples had occupied the areas along the waterways for thousands of years, and established varying cultures. Historic Native American tribes in the area at the time of European encounter included the [[Shawnee]], [[Susquehannock]], [[Gawanese]], [[Lenape]] (or Delaware), and [[Nanticoke people]]s, who were from different language families and had distinct cultures.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/19990203143240/http://www.willowvalley.com/wvlancasterinfo.htm A Brief History of Lancaster County]. Web.archive.org (February 3, 1999; retrieved December 23, 2010.)</ref>

Among the earliest recorded inhabitants of the [[Susquehanna River]] [[valley]] were the [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking Susquehannock, whose name was derived from the Lenape term for "Oyster River People". (The Lenape spoke an Algonquian language.)<ref>Brinton, Daniel G., C.F. Denke, and Albert Anthony. ''A Lenâpé – English Dictionary''. Biblio Bazaar, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1103149223}}, pp. 81, 85, 132.</ref> The English called them the Conestoga, after the name of their principal village, ''Gan'ochs'a'go'jat'ga'' ("Roof-place" or "town"), anglicized as "Conestoga."<ref>Zeisberger, David. ''Indian Dictionary: English, German, Iroquois—The Onondaga and Algonquin—The Delaware'', Harvard University Press, 1887. {{ISBN|1104253518}}, p. 161. The Conestoga never developed a writing system for their language; by 1700 they were defeated and absorbed by larger tribes of the [[Iroquois Confederacy]]. Their language is close to that of the [[Onondaga people]] of the Iroquois. They are believed to have migrated south from the [[Great Lakes]] region centuries before, as did the Cherokee, who occupied areas further to the South.</ref> Other places occupied by the Susquehannock were ''Ka'ot'sch'ie'ra'' ("Place-crawfish"), where present-day Chickisalunga developed, and ''Gasch'guch'sa'' ("Great-fall-in-river"), now called Conewago Falls, Lancaster County.<ref>Zeisberger (1887), ''Indian Dictionary'', pp. 48, 222</ref>

Other Native tribes, as well as early European settlers, considered the Susquehannock a mighty nation, experts in war and trade. They were beaten only by the combined power of the Five Nation [[Iroquois Confederacy]], after colonial Maryland withdrew its support. After 1675, the Susquehannock were totally absorbed by the Iroquois. A handful were settled at "New Conestoga," located along the south bank of the Conestoga River in Conestoga Township of the county. They helped staff an Iroquois consulate to the English in Maryland and Virginia (and later, Pennsylvania). By the 1720s, the colonists considered the Conestoga Indians as a "civilized" or "friendly tribe," having been converted in large part to Christianity, speaking English as a second language, making brooms and baskets for sale, and naming children after their favorite neighbors.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hsp.org/files/barberpaxtonexcerpt.pdf#search=%22paxton%20boys%22|title=Recollections written in 1830 of life in Lancaster County 1726–1782 and a History of settlement at Wright's Ferry, on Susquehanna River|access-date=October 9, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110330013256/http://www.hsp.org/files/barberpaxtonexcerpt.pdf#search=%22paxton%20boys%22|archive-date=March 30, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The outbreak of [[Pontiac's War]] in the summer of 1763, coupled with the ineffective policies of the provincial government, aroused widespread settler suspicion and hatred against all [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] in the frontier counties, without distinguishing among hostile and friendly peoples. On December 14, 1763, the [[Paxton Boys]], led by Matthew Smith and Capt. [[Lazarus Stewart]], attacked Conestoga, killing the six Indians present, and burning all the houses. Officials sheltered the tribe's fourteen survivors in protective custody in the county jail, but the Paxton Boys returned on December 27, broke into the jail, and massacred the remaining natives. The lack of effective government control and widespread sympathy in the frontier counties for the murderers meant they were never discovered or brought to justice.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The March of the Paxton Boys|last=Hindle|first=Brooke|journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]]|series=3rd|volume=3|date=October 1946|pages=461–486|doi=10.2307/1921899|issue=4|jstor=1921899}}</ref>