Minqua - The People of the Welsh Mountains

The original inhabitants of the area known as the Welsh Mountains were the Susquehanna Indians. The area was named by Welsh Settlers who received a Patent for the Land from William Penn. The Susquehanna were also knowns as the Black and/or white Minqua. That is the name that the people of the mountain, black/white/indian, answered to. They were not Tri-Racial Isolates, they were the People who lived by the River. Sometimes they were referred to as the People of the Muddy River. Although William Penn was a friend to the Indians, they were not a part of his transaction to Patent their land. The Susquehanna had no idea or concept about selling land, or even owning it. They occupied the land for over eleven thousand years before the Europeans settled there..., So it is not surprising that they remained in the Welsh Mountains, even after it was transferred away from them. As European Colonization took hold, they Welsh Mountain Natives were joined by Free Blacks, and then escaped slaves. Then came the disenfranchised whites from surrounding, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, and Dauphin County. From the early 1800's to 1976, the people of the Mountains lived their lives in Isolation. Their community elders were the Natives, who taught them how to survive in the Mountains. They lived for many generations in Interracial Peace and Harmony. The descendants of the Minqua, continue to live in and around the mountain, and throughout the Americas. This program is dedicated to the ancestors and descendants of the Minqua - People of the Welsh Mountains.