There is no evidence that the Indians who lived along the Monongahela River and its tributaries were actually called "Monongahela." Several groups of people lived in this area from about 1100 to 1700 A.D., and they had many things in common in their way of life. For that reason, we refer to them as the "Monongahela Culture."
The way they constructed their houses, the type of pottery they made and used, and the stone materials they used for their tools, weapons, and crop cultivation were similar. Burial customs also show similarity over the years. Evidence shows the possible existence of man in North America at the end of the Glacial Age, about 15,000 years ago.
Known as Paleo-Indians, they hunted now extinct animals as food until about 6,000 years ago when they discovered the mussel shoals in the rivers with their constant supply of food. This made them more settled and gave them more time to learn other skills. These "Hunters and Gatherers" soon learned to make pottery from the local clays and began planting crops near their villages.
Houses were constructed of saplings and made in a circular style with a ring of such surrounding a larger dwelling and plaza in the center of the village. A stockade surrounded many villages to protect against enemies and animals. The "Monongahela" culture spread over the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and a little in Ohio and western Maryland.
Many Indians traded with French fur trappers and were thus considered the enemy of the British during the French and Indian War. By 1768, the tribes had signed treaties that removed them to the western side of the Ohio River. By the time the white settlers came into the area to settle, there were no longer villages occupied by these native Americans. The French trappers had been on the rivers, coming from Canada in the late 1600s, and it is thought that they carried disease, which probably wiped out many tribes.
