METALLIC ORNAMENTS OF NEW YORK INDIANS 1$ 



Mr S. L. Frey gave an account of some he found in a grave near 

 Palatine Bridge in 1879. In this grave were stone tubes. He said: 



Near the tubes, and also embedded in the hematite, I found what 

 had apparently been a necklace or headdress, composed of copper 

 and shell beads; the former were badly oxidized, and had been made 

 of thin sheets of copper rolled into tubes. That they had been 

 worn around the head or neck was evident, for one side of the skull 

 and the lower jaw were stained a dark copper color. . . On 

 the same level as the last grave and about 6 feet to the west of it, 

 I came to another, similar in all respects, lined with flat stones 

 . . . The relics found were the remains of a necklace of shell 

 beads, little copper tubes and small seashells. Frey, p. 642-43 



Mr Frey kindly furnished fig. 369, showing two of these beads, 

 adding this note: 



The copper beads found in the tube graves are very small, made 

 of rolled metal, and so much oxidized as to make it difficult to 

 determine their original size. I, however, send the best sketch I 

 can. They appear to have been from a quarter of an inch to ij 

 inches long, and perhaps -J inch in diameter. 



The question of comparative antiquity is suggested by the vary- 

 ing character of these graves, but that most of them were of quite 

 an early age, no one will doubt. In form the beads are precisely 

 like those of historic times and made in the same way. Researches 

 in Ohio have demonstrated the early use of native copper beaten 

 into thin sheets, preparatory to use in other forms, so that this 

 presents no difficulty. 



Fig. 239 is a similar bead found by the writer by the Seneca river, 

 in 1878, in the same field where a fine native copper spear was ob- 

 tained. In section it is more nearly square than circular, and is 

 much corroded. Small ornaments of this kind would rarely be 

 long preserved except under favoring circumstances, and are thus 

 naturally rare. In graves or on village sites only would they last 

 long. This will account for the brief treatment native copper here 

 receives. 



There was a later use farther west. Alexander Henry saw native 

 copper at the mouth of the Ontonagon river in 1765, and said that 

 the Indians " were used to manufacture this metal into spoons and 



