Long before European settlers moved in, Native Americans were using Squirrel Hill (the hill itself, not the neighborhood) as a hunting ground. Their very early presence in the area was proven by the discovery of a Paleo-Indian spear point in Turner Cemetery that has been tentatively identified as a Steubenville Stemmed point at least 3,000 years old.
The Adena Mound Builders later roamed the area, possibly around 1,000 years ago. Old sources tell of several local Indian mounds being destroyed by early settlers for road and house building.
Up to the time of European settlement in the 1700s, Indians used Squirrel Hill as a hunting ground because of the abundance of game, including the pesky fat squirrels ubiquitous to the area. Treaties with Great Britain and later the early United States gave the Indians the right to the land north of the Monongahela, but that didn’t stop settlers from moving in. The Indians responded with raids, one of which is pictured in a New Deal mural in the Squirrel Hill Post Office.