IO6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



value, but even if this is admitted they do have the certain virtue of 

 stimulating inquiry. 



The older theory that the Iroquois originated or had their early 

 home along the St Lawrence, about Montreal, is not entirely without 

 serious flaws. I believe from archeological evidence that certain 

 Iroquoian tribes never came from the St Lawrence region; for 

 example, the Seneca. The Seneca and Erie divisions seem to have 

 been as closely allied in western New York as the Onondaga and 

 Mohawk were in northern and eastern New York. The Mohawk 

 (or Laurentian Iroquois) never agreed with the Senecan division 

 and there indeed seems to have been a long period of separation that 

 made these two dialects more unlike than all the others of the five. 

 It would seem that the early band of Iroquois had divided at the 

 Detroit or the Niagara rivers, one passing over and coursing the 

 northern shores and the other continuing on the southern shores of 

 Erie and Ontario ; and that the northern branch became the 

 Huron and Mohawk-Onondaga ; that those who coursed south 

 of these lakes became the Seneca-Erie, the Conestoga (Andaste) 

 and the Susquehannock. It also appears that the Cherokee and 

 Tuscarora separated earlier than the Seneca and Huron-Mohawk 

 divis ; ons and perhaps absorbed other non-Iroquoian bands, still fur- 

 ther modifying their vocabularies. 



In the analysis that follows we shall briefly consider the material 

 culture of the Iroquois. In the topical discussion we have repeated 

 certain facts mentioned elsewhere, not for the sake of emphasis 

 only but to obtain another view of the same facts, when differently 

 correlated. 



An Outline of Iroquoian Material Culture, Based on Archeologi- 

 cal Evidence 



In considering the origin of the Iroquois, their migration and their 

 connection with and similarity to other tribes or stocks, it is of 

 importance to know just what is typically Iroquoian; that is to say, 

 what implements or ornaments may be regarded as distinctive. 



Arrowheads. The first object which a field investigator learns to 

 know, as the sign of Iroquoian occupation, is the thin, triangular 

 arrowhead of chert. Nearly all Iroquois arrow points seem 

 to have been of this type. On village, on camp site, or 

 in graves the delicately chipped triangle is found almost to the 

 exclusion of all other forms. It may not be regarded, therefore. 



