40 



AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



ranging from the Raritan River, in- 

 cluding Staten Island, to Saugerties 

 on the west bank of the Hudson. 



Raritan or Assanhican. 



Hackensack. 



Tappan. 



Aquakanonk. 



Haverstraw. 



Waranawankong. 



B. The Wappinger Confederacy 

 ranging along the east bank of the 

 Hudson, eastward to Connecticut, 

 from Manhattan Island. 



Rechgawawank or Manhattan. 



Siwanoy. 



Weckquaskeck. 



Wappinger. 



C. Montauk or Matouwack Con- 

 federacy. 



Canarsie. 



These tribes were surrounded on 

 all sides by neighbors of the same 

 stock, who differed somewhat in their 

 language and culture. On the south 

 and west, lay the Lenni Lenape, or 

 Delaware proper; on the north, the 

 Manhattan, and on the east the 

 New England tribes. Almost without 

 exception, these natives were displaced 

 early in the history of this country, 

 and have been long since expatriated 

 or exterminated. A very few mixed 

 bloods may yet be found on Staten 

 Island, Long Island, and in West- 

 chester County, but their percentage 

 of Indian blood is extremely low. 



The remains of aboriginal life now 

 to be found, consist of shell-heaps, 

 occurring at every convenient point 

 along the coast, on the rivers, and, 

 more rarely, inland; shell, refuse, and 

 fire pits; camp, village and burial 

 sites ; and rock and cave shelters. With 

 one prominent exception, 1 few or no 



i Burial Ridge, Tottenville, Staten Island. 



relics have been found in graves. The 

 typical interment was of the flexed 

 variety, but bone burials are not in- 

 frequent. 



Dog skeletons complete and intact, 

 bearing the appearance of having 

 been laid out, are sometimes found 

 buried in separate graves. Some 

 writers have supposed that' these indi- 

 vidual dog burials are the remains of 

 "white dog feasts" or kindred prac- 

 tices, because the Iroquois even up to 

 the present day hold such ceremonies. 

 The white dog is entirely cremated by 

 the Iroquois, and so far as we have 

 been able to find out, there is no record 

 of such occurrences among the Coastal 

 Algonkin; hence, there seems no reason 

 to attribute this custom to them since 

 other Iroquois traits were so infre- 

 quent. It seems more probable that 

 such burials are simply those of pet 

 animals, interred as we today honor a 

 faithful dog. 



Some of these dog burials may have 

 been sacrifices made to the Under- 

 neath Powers, such as horned snakes, 

 just as the Western Indians do today. 



In Waessenaer's Historic Von Europe, 

 we read of the Mahikan who lived on 



the Upper Hudson. 



It appears that the Sickanamers before- 

 mentioned, make a sort of sacrifice. They 

 have a hole in a hill in which they place a ket- 

 tle full of all sorts of articles that they have, 

 either by them, or procured. When there is 

 a great quantity collected a snake comes in, 

 then they all depart, and the Manittou, 

 that is the Devil, comes in the night and 

 takes the kettle away, according to the state- 

 ment of the Koutsinacka, or Devil Hunter, 

 who presides over the ceremony. 1 



****** 



Our Indians may well have sacrificed 

 dogs and buried them for these mythi- 

 cal snake monsters. 



Occasionally, the skeletons of dogs 

 and rarely of other animals have been 



1 Documentary History of New York, III, 28-9. 



