Monongahela tribe

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The Monongahela tribe of Native Americans is believed to be descended from the earliest group of human inhabitants of Western Pennsylvania. Archaeologists believe these people to be immigrants from Asia who walked across the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. Some sites in Western Pennsylvania, most notably the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, are believed to date back as long as 15,000 to 20,000 years.

The Monongahela tribe eventually developed canoes to travel along the region's rivers, began to cultivate crops, and built villages, some of which consisted of as many as 50-100 structures. These people also traded with other tribes who in turn traded with Europeans, but the Monongahela tribe seems to have vanished mysteriously some time during the 1620s or 1630s before ever having significant direct contact with Europeans. Many believe this to be the result of the spread of European diseases to which the Monongahela had no immunity. Others believe that most of the tribe were killed by or assimilated into either the Iroquois or the Delaware tribes during war. Still others claim that two massive droughts, one from 1587-1589 and another from 1607-1612, drove the Monongahela from the region in search of a more habitable area.

There have been many Monongahela burial sites and villages unearthed during the development of Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia from the latter half of the 20th century to the present day.