Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

zone, the McFate phase has been identified at the Elk County earthwork sites of Kane (36EL1), Russell City
(36EL2), and McKinley (36EL17), and in upland rockshelters in the Clarion River and Tionesta Creek
drainages (Johnson 1999:7). McFate phase vessels are also present at the Bell (36CD31) and Kalgren
(36CD7) sites in the upper reaches of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River (Johnson 1999:7). Finally,
McFate Incised ceramics appear in the Kiskiminetas Valley along the northeastern margin of Monongahela
territory by ca. A.D. 1475–1500 (Johnson 2001:71; Johnson 1999:9), where the immigrant McFate population
and indigenous Monongahela may have intermixed.
3.2 Historical Overview
3.2.1 Early Euro-American Exploration and Settlement of the Greater Study Area
When initially contacted by French Jesuit missionaries and explorers, the indigenous populations of
present-day northwestern Pennsylvania were dominated by the Five Nations Iroquois. Following the defeat
of the Neutral and Erie in the mid-seventeenth century, the Seneca expanded their territory to the west and
exercised control over most, if not all, of the area south of Lake Erie. Significant Seneca settlements (e.g.,
Te-Car'-Nohs, Goschgoschink, Cussewago, the Buckaloons, Ganagarah'hare [Venango], and Conewango
[Warren]) were reported by the French on the Allegheny River in western New York and northwestern
Pennsylvania by the end of the seventeenth century.
Eager to establish control of the Great Lakes and the Ohio River watershed, the French sent missionaries,
explorers, and traders into the area after 1669 (Stevens and Kent 1941:1). Louis de Joncaire (1670–1739) was
in the upper Allegheny in 1732 as an emissary to promote French ties with the local tribes. Subsequently, in
reaction to perceived English designs on the Ohio Valley, in 1749 the French dispatched an expedition from
Montreal led by Captain Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville to assert French claims of suzerainty over the
region. The Céloron expedition traveled via Lake Ontario, the Niagara portage, Lake Erie, Lake Chautauqua,
and Conewango Creek to its confluence with the Allegheny River at present-day Warren, Pennsylvania, and
thence to the Ohio.
It appears that actual European contact with the area south of Lake Erie predates this time, however,
because when Céloron arrived in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1749 he found English fur-trading stations
at Buckaloons (at the confluence of Brokenstraw Creek and the Allegheny River) and Venango (present-day
Franklin) (Donehoo 1995:244 [1928]; Stevens and Kent 1941:2). Céloron reproached the Seneca for their
dealings with the English. His warnings apparently had little effect, however, for the English posts were still
at Buckaloons and Venango the following year, and it was reported that English traders "…had stores on ye
Lake Erie…and upon the Ohio from Bockaloons [sic], an Indian town near its head to below the Mouth of
the Miami River…" (Stevens and Kent 1941:29).
In the mid-eighteenth century, New France established a series of fortifications and posts at strategic
points in western Pennsylvania in an attempt to establish control over the upper Ohio Valley and to drive out
the English. These fortifications included Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie, Fort Le Boeuf (present-day
Waterford) on French Creek, Fort Machault at Venango (present-day Franklin), and Fort Duquesne at the
confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers at present-day Pittsburgh. By 1754, the French
controlled the upper Ohio River valley and northwestern Pennsylvania. From their strategically placed
fortifications, the French and their Native American allies harassed and attacked the English as far east as the
Susquehanna River valley and as far south as the settlements of Maryland, Virginia, and southern
Pennsylvania (Stevens and Kent 1941:88). French domination in the French and Indian War continued until
1758 and the fall of Fort Duquesne to English forces. Burning Fort Duquesne, the French retreated to Forts
Machault, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle, which in turn were burned in 1759 during the final retreat to Detroit,
thereby leaving northwestern Pennsylvania open to English incursion. Within a year, English expeditions
were sent to rebuild and occupy Fort Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, and Fort Venango (near the former French
Fort Machault).
Although the French were removed, hostilities continued in western Pennsylvania with raiding parties
of Iroquois and their allies harassing the English frontier forts. In 1763, the hostilities culminated in a general
attack known as Pontiac's Uprising. Forts Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango were burned and Fort Pitt was
under attack until Colonel Bouquet raised the siege. Although the English had regained control of the upper
Ohio Valley by 1764, the outlying forts were never rebuilt by the English.
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