Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 5

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 5

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

brass kettle. In another grave were found the skeletons of a man of enormous muscular development, as indicated by the marks on the bones, also one of a smaller person, probably his wife, and the crumb- ling bones of an infant. With the last was a tiny brass sleigh-bell; with the large skeleton, the vestiges of an iron knife and a string of beads, and at the feet of each adult skeleton was a brass kettle. In the grave, as well as on the surface of the ground, was manifest the tran- sition from the stone age to civilization. Some of the beads at the neck of the warrior were of red stone, doubtless brought through many a barter from a western tribe; at the throat were minute brass beads, the verdegris from which had so preserved the string that there still remains the loose single bow-knot, which had been tied perhaps two centuries ago, when the preparation for burial was made.

On the site of Buffalo itself the Senecas occupied and left for the collector a range of country, attractive to the Indians on account of many natural advantages, yet almost uncontaminated by European in- fluences until the rapid growth of distinctly Caucasian civilization. As we have seen, the Eries and the Kah Kwahs were practically ex- terminated before they could have been materially affected by European trade; and from their occupancy till the beginning of settlements no longer within the influence of the stone age, Erie county and most of the State as far as the Genesee valley, was simply a hunting ground and summer resort of the Senecas.

Considering the number of surface relics and the amount of grading and excavating which has been done in and near Buffalo, surprisingly few Indian remains have been found. A few years ago, between Buffalo Creek and Clinton street, near the present city line, a number of Indian skeletons were found buried within a radius of twenty feet from a common center, and three or four feet below the surface. Most of the skeletons were unaccompanied with relics, but two large, flat- bottomed brass kettles were unearthed. No collector would imagine for a moment that these were the work of the Indians, although the burial place antedated the historic period. By a strange contrast, the surface of the ground above the burying place has yielded flint arrow heads, stone hatchets, unglazed pottery and other relics of the stone age, but not a trace of implements of European manufacture. Whether the kettles, with one or two skeletons, were intrusions of comparatively modern Senecas into an older burial place, or whether they were among the few foreign valuables that the Kah Kwahs possessed, is un-

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Arrow heads, drills and scrapers from Buffalo.

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INDIAN OCCUPATION AND ANTIQUITIES.

certain. The Jesuits recorded the custom of the latter tribe as favor- ing the exposure of the dead upon scaffolds, whence they were removed once in ten years and deposited in a common burial place. On account of this fact it has been decided that the skeletons in question were the remains of the older occupants of this vicinity. But almost precisely the same mode of burial has been noted in the Seneca country about Rochester, Canandaigua, and even in the territory of the more eastern of the Five Nations. Sometimes in burials of Iroquois the skeletons were arranged with the feet pointing toward a cache of kettles or other valuables; more often no regularity can be demonstrated and most of the skeletons are unaccompanied by relics. The fact that parts of the skeletons are often missing, suggests that the Iroquois, like the Kah Kwahs, collected the remains from aerial scaffolds at intervals of years. Single prehistoric interments have been occasionally noted in and near Buffalo, and it may be that these indicate the death of a member of a hunting party at a distance from his permanent home. Curiously enough the brass kettles alluded to have been used to support the theory of the presence of the Norsemen in this immediate region. An inspection of the metal and of the accompanying remains is sufficient to prove that no such antiquity is possible. Several Indian burial places have been discovered within the limits of Erie county; one at Clarence is said to have contained over two hundred skeletons. At Point Abino, Canada, there is a burial place containing many remains. With one of the skeletons from this locality was buried a large sea shell, and discoid beads of the same material have been found in con- siderable numbers. There is no evidence that this burial place is as modern as the period of European trade, and we may assume that the shell (a conch fully ten inches in diameter) was obtained by barter from the aborigines of the coast.

In the bluff at Fort Porter Professor Bishop has found a solitary skeleton, accompanied by rude implements of the stone age, indicat- ing considerable antiquity, as great, at least, as that of the relics ob- tained from the plateau above. Similar interments of one, or at most two or three bodies, high up on river or lake banks, have been con- sidered by some as characteristic of a very ancient, platycnemic people, whose flat shins and other skeletal peculiarities were due to climbing and living in trees.

About forty prehistoric mounds and earthworks have been described in Erie county, including several at Lancaster and Clarence, and a

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

semi-elliptical inclosure near the old mission chapel on Indian Church street. There is no proof that the Mound Builders, proper, ever in- habited this region. On the other hand, within the last half century, intelligent Indians, lineal descendants, respectively of Seneca and Kah Kwah warriors, have declared that they have no traditions as to the origin of these works. The Senecas, to be sure, locate their final battle with the Eries at the earthwork named above, but they have no knowl- edge of its construction. A mound upon White's or Tonawanda Island was said by modern Senecas to be a burial place of the Kah Kwahs, but recent investigation has shown that it contained only two skeletons, by no means in accordance with the burial customs of the Neutral Na- tion, while the skulls are said to differ from the ordinary type. The writer may be allowed to express the opinion that the Mound Builders were not entirely distinct in race from the Indians, but that they were simply American aborigines who developed quite a high state of civilization through peaceful tendencies and the favoring influence of the climate and fertility of the Mississippi and tributary valleys.

It may be remarked in passing that popular accounts of prehistoric remains are usually grossly inaccurate. The height of skeletons is apt to be exaggerated, whereas, in the experience of the writer, the greatest stature noted was only an inch or two over six feet and most of the remains were of persons of ordinary size.

The collector cannot fail to notice that the sites of aboriginal habita- tions about Buffalo are high and dry and protected from prevailing winds, yet almost invariably in the neighborhood of streams or springs; in short, just such places as would now be attractive, if we imagine our city blotted out of existence and ourselves in the state of savages. The uniformity with which the slope rather than the summit of a hill was chosen, suggested also that our barbarian predecessors were ever on the alert for an enemy. There are usually found a few flint chips or other relics on the highest point of the hill, and we may go so far as to imagine that these indicate the position of sentinels. In exposed banks, subject to effects of the weather, we find relics, if at all, in a stratum not deeper than the roots of grasses. When relics are found on ground sloping toward water courses, their presence ceases just where the ground begins to become damp, excepting where the dampness is attributable to the influence of recent drainage. These facts show that there has been no considerable change in the "lay of the land " from the earliest period of human occupancy to the present era of grading and excavating.

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The stone age has been divided, the world over, into paleolithic and neolithic periods, according to the perfection of the flint and other relics found. Palæolithic implements are of the rudest type and are some- times of such great antiquity that they have become covered with lay- ers of earth or gravel, or are so located with reference to lakes and rivers that it is evident that considerable geological changes in levels or the course of streams have taken place since they were used by human hands. Roughly chipped implements are found in the vicinity of Buffalo, but usually so closely associated with more artistic arrow and spear heads that we may probably ascribe them to bungling appren- tices of the neolithic and comparatively modern era. At Williamsville, however, there are several acres in the valley of the creek which are overflowed at almost every freshet and which bear quite characteristic palæolithic implements. On the other hand, it must be conceded that the marks of chipping on these relics are still sharp, whereas if they were of palæolithic antiquity, we should expect them to show more of the corroding action of time. In considering the age of sites of Indian occupancy, we must also bear in mind the possibility of tribes, widely separated by time, choosing the same eligible spots. There is absolute historic proof that several of the favorite locations of the modern Sen- ecas had been inhabited by earlier residents.

In a general way, the sites where Indian relics are found in this county may be classified as camps, villages and arrow head factories. Without intending to use these terms in an arbitrary manner, or to intimate that all such sites can be accurately classified, the following illustrations will show the meaning of these terms. At Fort Porter, before official vandalism had removed our only picturesque and some- what ancient ruin and covered the original surface of the ground, there were several acres thickly strewn with flint chips and the cores from which arrow, spear heads and other chipped flint implements were made. At some spots the chips were so numerous as to suggest that here some ancient worker had sat day after day and fashioned lumps of flint into useful shapes and thrown the waste material about him. Not infrequently an arrow head would be found with point well formed but with the base still unseparated from the core, and sometimes a fossil or other obvious flaw in the flint would show why the Indian ar- tisan had abandoned his task. Relatively to the large number of chips and unfinished implements, perfect arrow heads were few, and the en- tire collection of several persons, extending over a number of years,

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

included only a very few celts, two or three hammer stones, an un- finished gorget and one fragment of pottery. Any one who passes along Front Avenue and notices the double windows and storm houses, can appreciate why the Indian, with his crude architectural abilities, should have refrained from establishing a permanent village at Fort Porter. The absence of the necessary implements of peace, and es- pecially of pottery, shows that his occupancy of this beautiful but wind- swept spot was temporary and almost solely for the sake of manufac- turing flint weapons. The one fragment of pottery found at Fort Por- ter is closely covered with marks of finger nails and the clay is heavily loaded with crushed quartz, characteristics of the Fort Erie pottery, and it seems probable that it was brought across the river by some collector and accidentally dropped.

In regard to the term "arrow head factory," it should be remarked that nearly all the chipped flint implements found in this immediate vicinity are made of the grey and black flint (or more properly chert), borne by the corniferous limestone, and which has given the name Black Rock to the upper' portion of the city. Most of the stone arrow heads found throughout the Seneca and Cayuga country have the same appearance, and their source is plain when we consider that there is no considerable outcropping of flint for a long distance to the eastward of Buffalo. According to credible information, the Indians, even since the Revolution, have been in the habit of making annual pilgrimages to Buffalo from points farther east than Canandaigua, the original, and to some degree the later, purpose of these expeditions being to obtain flint for weapons. The writer has noticed a striking similarity between arrow heads found on the point of land at Keuka Lake where Red Jacket was born and some of those from the site of an ancient village at Cornelius Creek, Buffalo. The similarity consists in a peculiar curve of the margin of the stem, and might be merely a coincidence, if not seen in a sufficient number to suggest a common type.

Strolling along the creeks which run into Niagara River within or near Buffalo, the careful observer will find many places where a hand- ful of flint chips, a few pieces of pottery, possibly an arrow head or two or some other relic will be found. A subsequent visit to these places will show that their resources in this respect have been ex- hausted. Occasionally, a little blackening of the soil may still be visi-

1 With the old Buffalonian " up " means north, or toward Main street.

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INDIAN OCCUPATION AND ANTIQUITIES.

ble, and we surmise, though we cannot prove, that we have found the exact spot at which some party of Indians kindled their camp-fire.

Again, the collector will occasionally find areas of several acres, rich in relics of various kinds, convenient to running water and pleasantly situated. In imagination he may see the smoke of the city clear away, the suburban landscape take on a wilder aspect and he may picture to himself the wigwam whose hearth-fires have blackened the earth, and the savage inhabitants whose hands have fashioned and broken and thrown away the bits of stone and baked clay which he so eagerly . gathers.

As may be expected, these types of arrow head factory, camp and village, are not always sharply contrasted in the field. The quarrying and working of flint may appear to have been the principal industry of what must have been a prosperous and quite permanent village site, or it may remain an open question whether a certain spot marks the brief encampment of a considerable party or the permanent home of a few families. Again, the American archaeologist uses the word per- manent with a small reservation. A village once burned by the enemy was seldom rebuilt; we can readily believe that if sanitary conditions became such as to offend even the hardened susceptibilities of an In- dian, it was cheaper and easier to make a fresh clearing than to renovate the old; and from historic accounts, we know that the Indians were nomadic in their habits and possessed of few chattels which would cen- ter their interests in any one place.

Stone-age arrow heads are much the same wherever found, and no one fact is more significant in its bearing on the unity of the human race than that the savage occupants of every country of the world,-sep- arated, it may be, by vast oceans and still more widely by thousands upon thousands of years, all chipped flint, or some substitute therefor, in the same shapes, ground out the same stone hatchets and manipu- lated bone and clay in the same rude manner. Aside from the obvious conception of a hard point that could be fashioned into a shaft, the thought is irresistible that the stone-age artisan followed leaves as a model for his arrow points; it is, however, scarcely convenient to de- scribe arrow heads in botanical terms. Some arrow heads have stems, others not; in either case they were fastened into the split shaft by winding the latter with sinew, pitch being perhaps added as a sort of glue. Unstemmed arrow heads may be classified as (1) one-pointed, which have a rounded base and a broadly or narrowly ovate outline;

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

(2) two-pointed, converging to a point at each end, a comparatively rare type, found rather frequently at Fort Erie; (3) three-pointed, with either a straight or a concave base; in the latter case the angles of the shafted arrow head act as barbs.

Stemmed arrow heads may be classified according as the base is barbed or rounded and according as the stem is simply a narrow pro- jection to fit within the cleft of the shaft, or as it is expanded to about the width of the base of the arrow head proper. In the latter case the stem itself may be either barbed or rounded. Rarely the stem is in- terrupted by a series of constrictions; this latter form has not been found in this vicinity, to the writer's knowledge. Occasionally the edges of an arrow head are serrated so as to produce the greatest pos- sible laceration of a wound. Rarely arrow heads have a spiral turn and there is much dispute among archaeologists as to whether the twist was accidental or intentional. The principal argument against the latter theory is that the heavy head of an arrow, however shaped, would have little effect on the revolution of the shaft, and not nearly as much as a spirally wound feather at the other end. The writer agrees with this; but may not the native artisan have had in mind the equally practical and perfectly feasible object of producing the maximum amount of damage when the arrow head reached its des- tination?

No arbitrary line can be drawn between arrow and spear heads. Points intended especially for shooting birds and small animals were from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and a half in length. Occa- sionally even smaller ones are found and it has been suggested that these were intended for children's toys; but, with growing experience, the archaeologist becomes more and more sceptical as to the existence of sentiment in the breasts of the American aborigines. A flint point of about two inches and a half in length would be adapted to use either on an arrow or a spear, but one much longer than. this would be un- equivocally a spear head. The same classification may be used for both arrow and spear heads, but the latter are usually stemmed, for greater security in shafting, and seldom barbed, so that a too success- ful thrust might not leave its owner without a weapon.

Somewhat irregular oval, circular or semi-elliptical implements may be considered knives or scrapers. Arrow and spear heads accidentally broken at the point seem also to have been remodeled into scrapers. A stemmed scraper was intended for use in a wooden or horn handle,

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but we can ascribe no reason for a scraper with barbed base, except the utilization of part of a broken arrow or spear head.

Drills are usually in the form of very slender, four-sided pyramids. Sometimes the ordinary type of stemmed arrow head is finished with a drill point. Judging from unfinished specimens, most flint implements were formed at the point first, probably because this was the easiest method. At Fort Erie has been found a very perfect representative, both in size and shape, of the ordinary dagger. Otherwise departure from the types of chipped flint implements is rare and the imitations of turtles, birds, fish, etc., seen in collections from the Mississippi valley are entirely lacking in this region.

The mode of construction of flint implements has been a matter of much dispute, and the art was speedily lost by all stone-age peoples as soon as they were provided with metallic substitutes. It is quite well established, however, that the chipping was not done with the aid of heat, as has sometimes been asserted, but by pressing and striking with a piece of hard wood, bone or antler. The margins may have been perfected and serrations added by nipping off small fragments with a Y-shaped tool of the same material.

Indian pottery is easily distinguished from the broken dishes of civ- ilized times by the absence of glaze, the thickness and the tendency to separate into two layers. Although entire vessels are not found in this vicinity, sufficiently large fragments have been recovered to show that the ornamentation is usually limited to a border of two or three inches below the rim. Various patterns may be traced, but the curved line is almost unknown. A favorite mode of ornamentation, particularly in the Fort Erie pottery, is by the finger-nail. It is also common to find small circular depressions or complete perforations forming part of the pattern just below the mouth of the vessel. Few of the fragments on the east side of the river suggest vessels with necks, but rather shal- low bowls, six or seven inches in diameter and four or five inches in depth. On the Canada shore several large fragments have been found belonging to wide-mouthed jars, bulging below the neck and reaching a height and diameter of about a foot. At Fort Erie pottery kilns have been discovered. A few inches below the surface of the sand charcoal is found with the quite complete though shattered remains of a clay vessel. The outer boundary of the kiln is a circle of fire-cracked stones, each four or five inches in diameter, while the diameter of the whole kiln is about a yard. There seems to have been no foundation nor covering except the sand.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

The simplest Indian relic found in this vicinity is a round, water- worn, flat pebble, two or three inches in diameter, whose circumfer- ence is divided into halves, or rarely into quarters, by nicks. It is sup- posed that such stones were net-sinkers, as they are rarely found at a distance from water and are especially abundant at Fort Erie. At many sites along the neighboring creeks they indicate a greater depth of water and a far richer stock of fish than can now be found.

Water-worn stones of oblong shape, rubbed thin in an oblique line about a third of the distance from one end to the other, and sometimes showing the same use on opposite sides, are supposed to have been whet-stones, usually termed by archaeologists "slick-stones." A some- what similar relic from La Salle, without the whet marks, has been de- clared to be a moccasin last by those who have studied western Indians. The size and shape certainly support this hypothesis.

Hammer stones are approximately spherical or cuboidal, showing little artificial modification, except a depression pecked in the upper surface, and sometimes others on opposite sides, so as to allow a finger- hold. A rather elaborate hammer-stone from Fort Erie has a neck on which are grooves for the thumb and fingers. It is a significant com- mentary on Indian customs that these grooves are fitted to a woman's hand. Pestles, tapering cylinders of stone, are occasionally found, but corresponding mortars are rare, perhaps because perishable ones of wood were employed.

Archaeologists use the noncommittal term of celt for various sharp- edged implements which might have been used as hatchets, axes, wedges, chisels, gouges, etc. Those of this vicinity are, with remark- ably few exceptions, flat or slightly curved on the lower surface and either arched or beveled on the opposite sutface, while they present neither groove nor perforation for a handle. These stones were mainly used for skinning animals. Very few grooved celts, which might have been used as tomahawks, have been found in the vicinity and perforated implements of this character are almost unknown. Some of the more symmetrical and heavier celts were probably hafted by placing them in a cleft sapling and allowing the wood to grow around them. A few round stones, grooved equatorially, from Fort Porter and other sites of Indian occupancy, were fastened by a thong to the end of a stick and used as war clubs. From Grand Island, Fort Erie and elsewhere, rare specimens of gouges have been taken. Almost without exception the celts are made from glacial boulders, the favorite material being a greenish stone.

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Upper Row : Spear head from La Salle, Limestone pipe bowl from Ft. Erie, Stone Gouge, Grand Island, Hammer Stone fitted to right hand of woman or child. Ft. Erie.

Middle Row : Panther pipe or totem of impure gypsum. Ft. Erie. Grooved stone for war-club. Ft. Porter. Buffalo.

Lower Row: Hatchet or skinning stone, E. Buffalo. Hatchet with curved edge. Cornelius Creek, Buffalo.

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INDIAN OCCUPATION AND ANTIQUITIES.

Hard, flat pieces of slate, with one or two perforations, are occa- sionally found near Buffalo, though they are rare here as elsewhere. These are most commonly oblong and quite uniform in thickness- about three-sixteenths of an inch. The middle of the perforation is smaller than at the surfaces, showing that the holes were bored from each side. These stones are usually termed gorgets, but they may have been used as cloak fasteners, possibly as shuttles, or they may have had a significance as badges or religious tokens. Unfinished specimens of this kind have been found at Fort Porter and at Cornelius Creek.

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 5

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017