188 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



all appear to have been on the original ground surface, although those 

 farther up the hill were some four feet under the present surface. In one 

 of these pockets, was found the complete skeleton of a dog ^ ; in another, 

 a turtle shell; two others contained complete snake skeletons; while a fifth 

 held the fragments of a small pottery vessel. The pockets were small, 

 being about three feet in diameter and of equal depth, showing no signs 

 Gi having first been used as fire places and then filled up, though charcoal 

 was scattered among the shells. Almost all the relics from Van Cortlandt 

 Park were found by Mr. James in pockets similar to these. 



During Indian troubles in 1675, the Wickquaskeeks at Ann's Hook, 

 now Pelham Neck were told "to remove within a fortnight to their usual 

 winter quarters within Hellgate upon this island." Riker says, "This 

 winter retreat was either the woodlands between Harlem Plains and Kings- 

 bridge, at that date still claimed by these Indians as hunting grounds, or 

 Rechawanes and adjoining lands on the Bay of Hellgate, as the words 

 'within Hellgate' would strictly mean, and which, by the immense shell- 

 beds found there formerly, is proved to have been a favorite Indian resort." ^ 

 A little later the Indians asked to be allowed to return to their maize lands 

 on Manhattan Island and the Governor said that they, "if they desire it, 

 be admitted with their wives and children, to plant upon this Island, but 

 nowhere else, if they remove; and that it be upon the north point of the 

 Island near Spuyten Duyvel." ^ 



Mrs. Mary A. Bolton Post, in waiting to the editor of "The Evening 

 Post," June 19th of the year of the opening of the Harlem Ship Canal (1895), 

 speaks of some Indians who were allowed to camp on the south side of Spuy- 

 ten Duyvil Creek on the Bolton property in 1817. Ruttenber says that the 

 Reckgawawanos had their principal village at Yonkers, but that on Berrien's 

 Neck (Spuyten Duyvil Hill) Avas situated their castle or fort called Nipinich- 

 sen. This fort was protected by a strong stockade and commanded the ro- 

 mantic scenery of the Papirinimen, or Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and the 

 Mahicanituk (Hudson River), the junction of which was called the Shor- 

 ackappock. It was from this castle that the Indians came who attacked 

 Hudson on his return down the river.* Some small shell deposits occur on 

 Spuyten Duyvil Hill, but as yet this "castile" has not been definitely located. 

 The village site at Yonkers, according to INIr. James, is now covered by 

 l)uildings; Ijut several relics found near the site years ago are now in the 

 Manor Hall at that place (1904). 



' All that could be saved of this skeleton has been presented to the Museum by Mr. 

 Edward Hagaman Hall. 



2 History of Harlem, p. 366. 



3 Ibid., p. 369. 



* Ruttenber, pp. 77-78. 



