8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



but every article described above was in use bv the Iroquois in- 

 the 17th centurv. The arrowheads of 1602 are said to be "much 

 like our broad arrowheads, very workmanly done," and brass 

 arrowheads are spoken of b^^ others. 



Native copper articles are rare along the New York seacoast 

 and in our mounds, and perhaps are found more rarely still on 

 camp sites. They seem to have been lost in travel. Apparently 

 implements of native copper have not been made in the interior 

 of New York within 400 or 500 years. This conjecture may be 

 changed at any time, though well founded now. The Iroquois 

 of Montreal knew of this metal in 1535, but had none. The 

 Atlantic coast Indians were then more fortunate, either having 

 European or home sources of supply, or communication with 

 the Lake Superior mines, from which the Iroquois proper were 

 cut off. Both these things are probably true. 



For the last we may remember that the larger part of the 

 Huron-Iroquois family were somewhat isolated, the Algonquins 

 surrounding them and for a long time keeping gome of them 

 under. No members of the Iroquois family lived west of Lake 

 Huron, but their foes did. So thev told Cartier that in the 

 country of metals " there be Agojudas, that is as much to say, 

 an evill people, who goe all armed even to their fingers' ends.'' 

 These wore the aboriginal armor and were continually at war. 

 The Iroquois were then unwarlike and commanded no access to 

 the mines. 



The question of a home supply merits attention. Copper 

 occurs in mines, but so it does in scattered fragments. There 

 are even unprofitable copper ores in New York, but no ledges 

 of this metal. Nodules of several pounds weight have been 

 found in Connecticut and New Jersey, and some may have been 

 used and prized by the aborigines near the coast. Farther 

 north there is little doubt that all articles came from Lake 

 Superior at an early day, and they have such marked pecu- 

 liarities as to make it probable that they were commonly 

 wrought into shape in that vicinity. Occasional rude pieces 

 found in New York also show this was not always the case. 



