Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I, Part 5

Author: White, Truman C
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1014

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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

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.

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND ANTIQUITIES.

The stone age has been divided, the world over, into palæolithic 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,

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 upper1 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.

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;

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,

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND ANTIQUITIES.

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.

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 surface, 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.

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.

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.

A beautiful totem of impure gypsum comes from Fort Erie. The animal represented is probably a panther, the long tail being curved forward and the claws showing in bas relief. Large conical per- forations from the neck and the lower part of the back of the figure meet at a common apex. Possibly these openings were intended one for tobacco and the other for the introduction of a reed stem.

Pipes of clay were made in approximately the same shape as at present, but the necessary thickness of the material used gave them a clumsy appearance. Though not glazed, the clay is usually highly polished. The Indian seems to have been a very temperate smoker, for the bowls of his pipes hold scarcely more than a thimbleful. Stone pipe bowls, sometimes with a downward prolongation into which a stem was fitted, are even more rare than the clay pipes. The time- honored conception of the Indian pipe, a flattened tube of red pipe clay into which the bowl sets at an angle, like the mast of a boat, is almost never realized in the relics of this region.

A description of other relics, only occasionally found in this locality, is scarcely within the scope of this chapter, but may be found in Abbott's Primitive Industry and other similar works. Probably two or three thousand local arrow heads and as many hundred celts are pre- served in various public and private collections. A large room could be paved with the net-sinkers of Buffalo and Fort Erie, and bushels of flint chips and fragments of pottery still lie on the ground within the present city limits. A general similarity may be noticed in the relics from the various village and camp sites of southeastern Buffalo and the glossy flint of the Canada shore of Lake Erie is characteristic; in some instances an experienced collector, knowing that an arrow head is from one of two or three ancient sites, may locate it correctly. But, as a rule, no deduction can be drawn as to the age of a relic or the tribe which made it.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

In their associations with the settlers at Buffalo and its vicinity the Indians were usually peaceful. For many years they were familiar figures in the village, among them being several chiefs who occupied the highest stations in the Seneca nation. Farmer's Brother was one of these; he resided at what was called Farmer's Point, the first cabin from the village line on the reservation. Farther up and just above Seneca street was the old council house, a block building where the Indians met for their legislative proceedings. Near it lived White Seneca, and his son, Seneca White, with others of lesser note. Still farther out was the main Indian village, where the great Red Jacket resided, and which was scattered along both sides of the Aurora road, west of the later village of Ebenezer, and on the flats south of the vil- lage. Their dwelling places at that time were principally log cabins. Buffalo was their metropolis and almost every day they came in, few or many, sometimes bringing baskets of corn on their heads, or chickens and eggs, and occasionally butter; and in the winter time the men brought in great loads of game, deer and smaller animals, which were sold to the settlers at ridiculously low figures. Capt. Samuel Pratt's1 early store was their trade headquarters, and he was very pop- ular with them. They even gave him a title, "Negurriyu," meaning honest dealer, as remembered by members of his family. Many anec- dotes have been told of the business and other experiences of Captain Pratt and the Indians. The latter, in spite of the fact that they con- sidered the pioneer an honest man, sometimes played tricks upon him. Their furs were bought by weight in all cases, and the Indians some- times filled the beaver claws with lead, a device that would do credit to the ingenuity of a Connecticut Yankee. Negurriyu wished to avoid giving mortal offence to the dishonest Indian in such cases by making an open discovery of the fraud, so would clip off the loaded claws with a hatchet and throw them in a corner. It may be imagined that the Indian could not complain at losing the weight of the claws without exposure of his trick. On one occasion Mrs. Pratt had a kettle of meat boiling out of doors while their house was in process of erection. A disreputable Indian commonly known as Peter Gimlet, was hanging about and the savory smell stifled his meagre conscience and he snatched the largest piece of meat from the kettle, thrust it under his

1 The history of the Pratt family gives his Indian name as "Hodanidaoh," meaning "merci- ful man." The name in the text above is according to the remembrance of his daughter. It is quite probable that both names were used by the Indians.

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Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I, Part 5

Author: White, Truman C Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1014

Author: White, Truman C
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1014