USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 4
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Closely connected with the question of the duration of human exis- tence on the continent is of course the question of the quarter from which the first inhabitants came. The attempts to designate particular nations as the original settlers of the American continent have failed generally to produce any conviction. However, writes Wood :
When we look at the conditions on either side of the continent we cannot sup- pose that it was at all impossible for men, at an indefinitely remote period, to have found their way hither. The climatic changes of past periods at some time may have made the route by Behring's Straits entirely practicable. The route by the Aleutian Islands is not difficult now to canoe navigators. The Pacific currents frequently cast the wrecks of Japanese vessels upon our northwestern shores. The islands of the South Pacific afforded a probable way of communica- tion, and, it is believed that many have disappeared, comparatively recently, beneath the surface. On the Atlantic side the difficulties were by no means insurmountable, even if we ignore "the lost Atlantis." The trade winds and equatorial currents carried Cabral and his Portuguese fleet, bound round the Cape of Good Hope, to the American shores, and led to the accidental discovery of Brazil. On his second voyage Columbus found, in a house on the island of Guadaloupe, the stern-post of a European vessel. In various periods of the past the same forces may have brought men to our shores. It is probable that America was peopled from various sources and at widely separated periods. These must have been very remote to afford time for the production of the conditions existing here. The aborigines of Westchester County belonged to the great family of Indians called the Algonquin Lenape. Their connection with the mound-builders of the Missis- sippi valley, with the Aztecs of Mexico, or with the builders of the wonderful structures found in Central America, if any ever existed, must have been extremely remote. Their traditions referred in a very vague way to long journeys from the northwest, and great suffering from cold on their way hither, and of contests with people who occupied the country before them. Of their own history they were lamentably ignorant. Their computation of time by moons and revolving cycles led all investigations into inextricable confusion. Any event beyond an individual's recollection floated vaguely in the boundless past. No records of any kind were made. For these reasons the Europeans were able to obtain from this people very little information of themselves or their fathers. They existed here for unnumbered centuries, and then passed away, leaving behind them no sign to mark their occupation of the country, save a few simple implements of stone, and no structure of any kind memorializes their power or attests their strength or
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skill. We are thus singularly destitute of nearly all means for acquiring actual knowledge of this people's history.
The Algonquin tribes occupied nearly the whole Atlantic seaboard, and their language necessarily was widely diffused. It has been found more facile in dialects than any other aboriginal speech. It was strangely agglutinative, and gave expression to thought by stringing words to- gether into an extended compound. It was the mother tongue of those who greeted Raleigh's colonists on the Roanoke, of those who boarded the "Half-Moon" on the Hudson, and of those who welcomed and fed the Pilgrims at Plymouth. It was heard from the land of the Esquimo to the Savannah River and from the Bay of Gaspé to the Mississippi.
The Mohegans were a division of the Algonquins. They occupied the country along the left bank of the Hudson River, called Mahhicannittuk, and eastward to the Connecticut, and from Long Island Sound north- ward to the mouth of the Mohawk, and perhaps to Lake Champlain. Their country was called Laaphawachking. North and west of the Mo- hegans were the powerful and warlike Iroquois, their immediate neigh- bors being the Horicans and Mohawks. Across the Hudson, below the Catskills, were tribes belonging to the Delaware nation, and east of the Connecticut were the Pequots. Long Island was occupied by Mohegan tribes. It has been stated that at the time of the discovery the Mohegans were under military subjection to the Iroquois, and are said to have been compelled to pay an annual tribute to them. However, it has been de- clared that this has not been substantiated by investigation, for there has been found no direct reference to it in any of the treaties made by these tribes with the whites, nor was such a thing ever alluded to in the protracted negotiations between them. The subdivisions of the tribe were very numerous. They had advantages for local government and the preservation of order. The form of government was very simple. Each local tribe had its ruler, called the sachem. He was also their rep- resentative in the general councils, which were composed of the repre- sentatives of the smaller tribes of the nation. They were presided over by the national grand sachem, who occupied the position of a sovereign. These councils assembled only in cases requiring concerted action, as in a general war. In all other matters the local tribes were independent and declared war for themselves, or made peace without consulting their brother tribes. The national obligation was imperative, and treason to the decision of the council was punished with death. Each nation had its emblem, or totem, which served the purpose of the flag of a civilized nation. These were used in times of war, and were drawn upon trees and rocks to indicate that the tribes had taken up the hatchet and had gone on the warpath. The Mohegan totem was a wolf, and in declar-
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ing war the animal was represented with its dexter paw raised in a threatening manner. The name "Mohegan" meant "Enchanted Wolf." The military force of the nation had regular forms of organization and discipline. The companies from the local tribes had their commanders, who were selected for their prowess and their achievement in arms. The united forces were commanded by chiefs who had obtained military distinction, and these stood in rank according to their services and their reputation for bravery, prudence, cunning, and good fortune. There was but little need for civil government, as their chief possessions were held in common, and where personal property existed, the owner's rights were recognized.
These local tribes were probably communities of blood relations who readily recognized the patriarchal authority of their sachem and who held their lands in common. The sachems received their support by the free contributions of the community. The ownership of land de- pended upon conceded original occupation or upon conquest. If ob- tained by conquest all original rights became vested in the conquerors, and if it was reconquered, these returned to the original owner. The aborigines had but little idea of title to land. They valued only its occupation and use. The game that filled the forests and the fish that swarmed in the waters gave a value that they well appreciated, and they also prized their cultivable tracts. There is much uncertainty regarding the subdivisions of the tribes in any given district, and if the question of their location were left to the statements and maps of the early European settlers, it might well be abandoned as hopeless. However, the title-deeds given to the settlers supply considerable information, which though not perfect, locates the sub-tribes with tolerable accuracy. Yet the boundaries of such tracts as were sold by the aborigines were designated with much uncertainty by the Indian names of rivers, brooks and rivulets, hills, ponds, and meadows, which are sometimes difficult to locate. Treaties made between the settlers and the Indians throw a supplementary light on the aborigines. The island upon which New York has been built was occupied by the Manhattans. Their territory extended along the Mahicanituk, or Hudson River, northward to the Nepperhan, or Saw Mill River, and eastward to the Aquahung, or Bronx River. Between the Nepperhan and the Pocantico were the Weck- quaesgeeks. The Sint Sinks occupied the land between the Pocantico and the Kitchawan, or Croton River. North of the Croton were the Kitchawans, whose lands extended to Anthony's Nose and the High- lands, and eastward across the northern portion of Westchester County. East of the Manhattans, occupying the territory along the Sound, were the Siwanoys, who also occupied the southwestern portion of Connec- ticut. North of the Siwanoys were the Tankitekes, occupying the cen-
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tral and eastern portions of the county. The western end of Long Island was occupied by the Canarsees. The Rockaways, Merricks, Marsape- quas, Matinecocks, Corchangs, Manhassets, Secatogues, Patchogues, Shiannecocks and Montauks extended eastward, in the order named. West of the Hudson were the Navesinks, Raritans, Hackinsacks, Tap- pans, and Haverstraws. Above the Highlands, upon the eastern side of the river, were the Nochpeens and the Wappingers. Eastward, in Connecticut, was the large chieftaincy of the Sequins. That the Indians of Westchester were very numerous is proved by the fact that over fifteen hundred warriors were at one time in arms against the whites, and also by the number of their large villages. These villages were lo- cated where there were special advantages for fishing, or where a light and easily worked soil was favorable for cultivation. The Manhattans had three villages upon Manhattan Island. Their largest village in this county was Nappeckamak, which occupied the site of the present city of Yonkers. At the southern end of the original township of Yonkers, overlooking the Hudson River, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, they had a fortress which they called Nipinichsen. The Weckquaesgeeks had their principal village at the mouth of Wysquaqua, where the village of Dobbs Ferry now stands. It was called by the tribal name. Until recently its site was designated by extensive shell-beds. They had another village at the mouth of the Pocantico, on the site now occupied by Tarrytown. This village was called Alipconck. They had another village by the Neperhan, west of White Plains. The Sint Sinks had a village called Ossing-sing, where The Kill empties into the Hudson at Sing Sing. They had a smaller village at the mouth of the Kitchawan, or Croton River. The Kitchawans had a large village upon Van Cortlandt's Neck, connecting Croton Point with the mainland. They had there the strongest fortress of any in the country. Like Nipinichsen, it was a heavily palisaded stockade. They had another village upon Verplanck's Point and a larger one called Sackhoes, where Peekskill now stands. The Siwanoys were a numerous tribe. They had a village upon Pelham Neck, in the present town of Pelham ; another on Davenport's Neck, in New Rochelle; and their largest settlement upon the shores of Rye Pond, in the present town of Harrison. There was a very extensive burial ground. There was also a settlement near Rye Beach. They had another village in the southern part of the town of Westchester, near Bear Swamp. They had an important castle upon what is known as Castle Hill, west of the Westchester Creek. The Tankitekes had a village near Wampus Lake, in the town of North Castle, where the Sachem Wampus resided. They also had a village near Pleasantville, in the town of Mount Pleasant. There was a settlement by the Mehanas River, near the present village of Bedford. There was also a village
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where the Cross River, the Indian name of which was Peppensghek, unites with the Croton, or Kitchawan, near the site of Katonah. There are still visible the remains of extensive stone fishweirs, in the bed of the Croton River, that were built by the Indians. Besides the villages named there were doubtless many more concerning which no direct in- formation has come down to us.
Indian Population and Food Supply-That the Indians occupied the territory of which The Bronx may be regarded as the core in great num- bers is rendered probable by the character of the country and its sur- roundings. The whole country is remarkably well watered and its soil produced an abundance of rich natural grasses. These conditions caused an abundance of game. The lands bordering the Beaver Dam River were called "the deer's delight." The numerous lakes and streams throughout Westchester County were well stocked with fish. These were taken with lines and nets, the cordage of which was made of twisted fibres of the dogbane and the sinews of the deer. Hooks were fashioned of the sharpened bones of fishes and birds. Weirs, fish-traps and spears were also employed. Deer and other game were taken by other means besides hunting with the bow and arrow. The English settlers found in good preservation, in the town of Poundridge, an ex- tensive trap which they called a pound, and from which the township had its name. It was situated at the south end of the ridge, not far from the present village, and enclosed the spring of water which still flows there. It was built of logs held together by what the English called saddlestones, was twelve or fourteen feet high and enclosed an acre or more of ground. From its narrow entrance there extended palisaded wings in each direction, so as to cross the valley and run up the adjacent hill sides. The valleys from the south and southwest come together again by the subsidence of the intervening ridges. The In- dians in considerable numbers would start in the early morning many miles away, and would "beat the bush," with hideous yells, working in the direction of the trap, while parties ran along the ridges on the right and left to prevent lateral escapes, and thus they drove before them the game of every description until they came to the wings of the trap, which led everything into the enclosure. Then the entrance was closed and all secured. In this way great numbers of deer and other game were taken.
Great as were the food supplies obtained from the forests and streams they were greatly increased by those from the surrounding waters. The Hudson River and the Sound make the situation of the contiguous mainland a remarkable one. These waters teemed with fish. In sea- sons of abundance, like the running of the shad in the springtime, quan-
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tities of fish were dried and smoked, and thus preserved for future use. Shell-fish were extensively used. Along the Sound the numerous shell- heaps attested the Indians' appreciation of the oyster. These shell- heaps resemble those of European countries, which, with the kitchen iniddens, have received so much attention from archæologists. So ex- tensive were these shell-heaps on City Island, now part of The Bronx Borough, that they gave to the surrounding waters the name of the "great bay of the island of shells." Similar heaps were found upon Berrien's Neck, in the township of Yonkers, and at the various village sites along the Hudson. The largest of these were upon the Croton Point, where until a few years ago considerable areas were still covered with them to the depth of two or three feet. Before the country was settled by the whites and the forests were cleared away, a much greater percentage of the rainfall evaporated from the surface of the land and less flowed into the streams. On this account the waters of the Hudson were much more salt than now, and more favorable to the oyster's de- velopment. To preserve the important oyster-beds of the wide lower portion of the river the fort upon Van Cortlandt's Neck was erected. It is an interesting fact that where the oyster shells have remained un- disturbed they are nearly all found whole, showing that the Indians opened the oysters without breaking them. It was probably accom- plished by exposure to the sun. None of them have been exposed to fire. A remarkable number and variety of stone implements have been found here, and a place of burial has been also discovered.
However, these early inhabitants of the territory of The Bronx and the adjacent region did not depend upon the food derived from the chase and taken from the waters. They cultivated the land much more extensively than is generally supposed. The European navigators of the Hudson were impressed by the extent of the fields of maize. Suitable lands along the Sound were similarly used, and throughout the interior the early white settlers found their difficulties greatly lessened by the extent of the lands already cleared and prepared for their immediate use. The Red Man's success in the cultivation of land was remarkable when we consider the disadvantages under which he labored. It must be remembered that he had taught no animal to assist him in his labor. He had no flock or herd, nor any kind of poultry. His dog was a worth- less creature, resembling a cross between the fox and the wolf, and was only the lazy sharer of his cabin or the playmate of his children, and was not trained to usefulness in the chase. He had no iron or any other metal, except rare specimens of native copper, brought from the shores of Lake Superior and worn as ornaments, or perhaps fashioned into highly prized spear-heads. In the present iron-age, when every required tool is ready-fashioned to our hand, it is difficult for us to
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imagine such a situation. How could the Red Man work the soil? How attack a tree? How obtain an implement of any description? In his various operations he had three agents-stone, wood, and fire. He some- times employed the first in the cultivation of his crops, but more often his only implement was a poor hoe made from the shell of the clam or the shoulder blade of the deer.
On this account he worked no soil but those that were light and easily stirred. Such soils were quickly exhausted and failed to yield proper returns for the labor expended. The Red Man's only means of restoring fertility was the use of fish as manure. Menhaden were his chief reliance for this purpose, and on this account the cornfields were most extensive near the shore. His most important crop was maize, and upon this he relied, very largely, for his subsistence in winter. It was roasted while young, and when matured and dry, was ground into meal by stone pestles and mortars, and when this was moistened with water and baked upon heated stones the product was called nookhik, from which have come nocake and hoe-cake. The grain was preserved after harvest by being buried in the dryest places under a thatch of coarse grass and boughs. Next in importance to maize was the sieva bean. It was ex- tensively raised and boiled alone or with the green corn. The latter dish was called succotash. The boiling was accomplished in bowls of steatite, or in vessels made of rude pottery. In addition to these, pumpkins were grown. These were readily baked before the fire. Wild fruits and nuts, in their seasons, also contributed to the support and enjoyment of the Red Man. Tobacco was also grown here. With their requirements for food thus met, the Indians here were not destitute of the means of comfortable clothing. The country abounded with fur-bearing animals. Beavers were common. The name of Beaver Meadows, scattered throughout the territory, and that of the Beaver Dam River attest this, Van der Donck, the patroon of Yonkers, wrote, in 1656, that eighty thousands of these were annually killed in this quarter of the country. In November, 1624, among the cargo of the first laden vessel from New to Old Amsterdam were 7,246 beaver skins, 675 skins of otters, forty- eight of mink, thirty-six wild cat and various other sorts. The tribes were in the habit of clothing themselves with otter-skins, the fur inside, the smooth side without; which, however, they painted so beautifully that at a distance is resembled lace. When they brought their commodi- ties to the traders and found they were desirous to buy them, they made so little matter of it that they ripped up the skins they were clothed with and sold them also, returning naked to their homes. Their most elegant garments were mantles made of feathers, overlapping each other, as upon the birds themselves. Sometimes these were artistic
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productions of real beauty. They made leggins and moccasins of deer- skins. The men always went bareheaded, and, in the summer, wore nothing except a garment about the loins, called by the white settlers, "Indian breeches." The women dressed their glossy hair in a thick heavy plait. Their dress usually consisted of two garments-a leather shirt and a skirt of the same material fastened round the waist, with a belt and reaching below the knees. From these various considerations it is plain that a large population could subsist in comparative comfort in this section. The Indian houses were made by planting poles in the ground and binding them together at the top. These were covered with bark or thatched with reeds and rushes, so as to be impervious to rain. Their beds were made of evergreen boughs, covered with skins and furs. Their furniture was extremely simple. Besides the pots for cooking referred to, they had wooden bowls for holding their food and wooden spoons for handling it. Mats made of rushes sometimes covered the floors of their huts. They had buckets ingeniously made out of birch-bark, so as to be water-tight, and baskets of various sizes, made of splints, rushes or grass. Their villages were composed of houses closely huddled together about a central space, which was used for the transaction of public business, for ceremonies and amusements. Besides the manufactures already named there were others that attested the Indian's skill. He made boats of two kinds. One consisted of a light, wooden frame, covered with birch-bark, skilfully and tastefully fastened at the seams; this boat was peculiarly valuable on long journeys as its lightness allowed it to be easily carried from the waters of one stream to those of another. The other boat was a much heavier affair, fashioned from the trunk of a tree. The wood was charred by heated stones and then scraped away with stone gouges. These boats were sometimes thirty or more feet in length, and were capable of carrying a considerable number of passengers. In some of the sales of land to the white settlers along the Sound the Indians reserved the white wood trees, "suitable for making canoes of."
Indian Implements and Ornaments-In perhaps nothing was the Indian's skill more strikingly shown than in his manufacture of im- plements of stone. These were mortars and pestles, axes, hatchets, adzes, gouges, chisels, cutting tools, skinning tools, perforators, arrow and spear heads, scrapers, mauls, hammer stones, sinkers, pendants, pierced tablets, polishers, pipes and ceremonial stones. Specimens of all these have been found in Westchester County. The mortars were usually bowl-like depressions worn into some rock beside the village site, where the women could conveniently resort to grind the corn. Sometimes they were made in portable stones. The pestles were from Bronx-3
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
two to three inches in diameter and from six to twenty inches in length, and generally of fine sandstone, greenstone, or hornblende. Axes were made of varieties of greenstone, syenite, granite, porphyry and sand- stone. They may be described as wedges, encircled by a groove near the heavy end. They varied in weight from half a pound to six or eight pounds. The groove was made for securely fastening the handle. This was bound with pieces of raw hide, or sometimes a young tree was cleft while yet growing, and the axe, being inserted, was left in the proper position until the growth had gradually formed about it. Adzes, gouges and chisels were made of tough greenstone and horn- blende, and were used in the manufacture of their canoes. The cutting tools were leaf-shaped implements made of flint or jasper, finely chipped to an edge, which combined in its cutting the principles of the saw and the knife. There were also flakes of obsidian that had sharp cutting edges. Skinning tools, or celts, were wedge-shaped implements made of many kinds of stone, worked to a fine edge at one end, and generally polished. Perforators were delicately wrought of flint · or jasper. Scrapers were small implements of flint used in dressing skins. Arrows and spearheads form the best known class of Indian implements and have been found in The Bronx and its neighborhood in great numbers. They were made of flint, jasper, chert, hornstone, quartz, and a variety of other stones. The spear heads were from two to eight and ten inches in length, while the arrow points were smaller and lighter, and many specimens of each were beautifully wrought. Occasionally throughout the county quantities of flint chips are found on some Indian village site, where the ancient arrow maker had his workshop. Mauls and ham- mer stones were made of several varieties of tough stones. The former were grooved for hafting and the latter were circular, or elliptical, two and a half inches in diameter, or three in greatest length, and an inch in thickness, with slight depressions worked at the middle of the sides for the thumb and finger. They usually show evidences of wear at the circumference or ends. Large numbers of these have been found along the Hudson. Sinkers were used in weighting the nets, and were simple flat stones, notched at the opposite edges. Pendants were pear-shaped, pointed at one end and grooved near the other. Pierced tablets were used in twisting the bow-strings or worn as ornaments. Some remark- able specimens of these, notched as if kept as records, have been found in The Bronx neighborhood. Pipes have not been found in great num- bers, but some of the specimens are very interesting. They are made of greenstone, steatite and sometimes were fashioned out of clay. They represent birds or the heads of birds, turtles and various animals, the beaver more frequently than others. Ceremonial stones were the most
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