Till-: ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW Y<>KK 387 



ers instead of agriculturalists, as they originally were, because a 

 market was provided for furs. 



Tepees and wigwams. The eastern Indians did not live in the 

 conical skin tepees used by the Indians of the plains region. All 

 descriptions, pictures and sculptures showing our eastern Algonkian 

 and Iroquoian people as tepee dw r ellers are incorrect. The dwellings 

 of the eastern Indians were houses made of bark. Some of these 

 houses were more than 150 feet in length and some housed from five 

 to ten families. The term wigwam may be applied to the Indian 

 bark house, and tepee to the skin tent. Wigwam is an Abenaki 

 word ; teepee or tipi is a Siouan word. 



Work done by women. The idea that the eastern Indian woman 

 did all the work of the tribe and of the family is erroneous. Indian 

 women had certain prescribed duties; men had theirs. There was 

 a distribution of labor by no means more unjust than exists at- the 

 present time in civilization. An untutored Indian coming from some 

 secluded region might at the present time return to his tribe and state 

 that white women do all the work and that all a man did was to leave 

 his house after breakfast and sit all day smoking and looking at 

 a book, now and then making black scratches on it. He would 

 possibly state that the white man loved war and wandered afar to 

 " make fight upon the lands across the big sea water," leaving his 

 women to be machinists, car conductors, farmers, day laborers and 

 voters. This untutored hypothetical Adario would misunderstand 

 our economics as much as the white commentator misunderstands 

 the economics of aboriginal life. As a matter of fact the Indian 

 hunter and fisherman had no easy life. Early missionaries and 

 explorers have frequently written of the Indian hunter's hardships. 

 The men cleared the land, built the stockades, cut the trees, built the 

 houses (which thereafter became the property of the women), pro- 

 cured the meat and skins, defended the village from wild beasts and 

 did other heavy manual labor. The women planted the land, owned 

 the houses, kept them clean, cooked the meat, dressed the hides, or 

 most of them, and did other domestic duties. The division of 

 labor was as equitable as the state of society and environment would 

 permit. Indian women, like their civilized sisters today were, how- 

 ever, required to do as much work as they would. 



Copper implements. Native copper implements are rather rare in 

 New York, but there are localities where a considerable number 

 have been found. New York native copper implements include awls, 

 beads, pins, arrow points, spear points, celts, chisels, knives (?), ear 



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