13 2 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



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huquois, however, in no : cnse erected mounds of the character 

 found in Ohio, neither does it appear that they were numerous 

 enough to require, or to be able to erect, such extensive earthworks. 

 A greater number of these inclosures are found in New York, west 

 of the Finger Lakes district and on the hilly regions of Chautauqua, 

 Cattaraugus, Erie, Wyoming, Genesee, Livingston and Ontario 

 counties. A few are found eastward, as in Jefferson county, but a 

 great majority are in the localities we have mentioned. 



The Iroquois w^ere an agricultural people like those of the south, 

 as of Virginia and Georgia or in the mound' district in Ohio and the 

 Ohio valley. Corn cobs and other vegetables are frequently found 

 in ash pits and refuse heaps in Iroquois village sites and the use 

 of tobacco may be deduced from the prevalence of numerous 

 smoking pipes. 



Unlike the Indians of Ohio, who built the mounds and fortifica- 

 tions, or the southern Indians, as those of Georgia and Alabama, or 

 the Algonkins east and north of them, the Iroquois did not use 

 implements or ornaments of copper or mica, nor did they use orna- 

 ments of polished slate as gorgets, stone tubes, bird stones, boat 

 stones, and banner stones. They did not use the bell-pestle or cylin- 

 drical pestle nor as a rule did they ornament their pottery with fab- 

 ric marks, notwithstanding the fact that they wove fabrics similar to 

 the impressions found on baked pottery in the Algonkian area. They 

 did not use the grooved axe, common among all the peoples about 

 them, nor did they have the monitor pipe commonly found in Ohio, 

 Kentucky, the southern states and throughout New England. Only 

 in rare instances did they use flints having barbs and stemmed 

 necks. The absence of these forms of implements is s : gnificant and 

 is the result of something more than mere accident. The Iroquois 

 had every opportunity for knowing of such objects and they were 

 fully capable of making them had they so desired. It appears from 

 these facts that the Iroquois deliberately choose not to use these 

 things and tabooed them from being employed in any w 7 ay. Appar- 

 ently there was a d : rect attempt to banish such articles beyond the 

 pale of their culture. On the other hand, the Iroquois did use stone 

 tomahawks or celts and apparently mounted them in the same man- 

 ner as contiguous nations. They did use the ball-headed wooden 

 war club such as is videlv found throughout the continent and their 

 shallow mortars and millers did not greatly differ from those used: 

 by the Algonkins. 



Their dwellings were houses of bark formed much like an arbor, 

 some with round and some with p : tched roofs. Under normal con- 

 ditions these houses were communal dwellings and large in size.-. 



