Attaock

Attaock stood in the Susquehanna country of south-central Pennsylvania, on the great river that breaks through the ridges and runs south to Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehannock, an Iroquoian people, lived in fortified towns along the river and its branches, growing maize on the fertile flats and trading furs with peoples to the north and west. In 1608 John Smith sailed up the bay to meet them, and his map of Virginia published in 1612 marked several Susquehannock towns along the river. Epidemics and wars with the Iroquois weakened the Susquehannock through the 1660s and 1670s, and by 1675 their hold on the lower river had broken.