INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 



47 



site, no systematic examination of 

 this place was ever made. Mr. John 

 Neafie found some potsherds here in 

 1886, Mr. Chenoweth also has some 

 potsherds from here. 1 Mr. Calver 

 says that this was a large deposit, and 

 that the peculiar thing about it was 

 that the shells were so wedged and 

 packed together that a pick would 

 hardly penetrate them. They lay 

 on the bare rock surface in cracks in 

 the rock; a condition common to this 

 neighborhood. 



Shell Pockets at 211th Street. In 

 March, 1903, there was considerable 

 excitement over the reported discov- 

 ery of an Indian graveyard at 211th 

 Street. 2 The graveyard proved to have 

 been that of some slaves, and was 

 situated on the western end of the rise 

 between 210th and 211th Streets, on 

 the eastern end of which is the old 

 Neagle Burying Ground. This dis- 

 covery was interesting because under 

 the negro graves several shell pockets 

 of undoubted Indian origin came to 

 light. The workmen, in grading 

 Tenth Avenue, cut into this hill to 

 obtain material for filling, and uncov- 

 ered the graves and pockets. It seems 

 almost certain that the deposits were 

 made some time ago; then the wind 

 blew the sand over the deposits to a 

 depth of four or five feet, and negroes 

 later used this place as a burial ground. 

 In support of this theory is the fact 

 that the pockets were four or five feet 

 under the surface, that the soil above 

 showed no signs of having been dis- 

 turbed, and that this rise is put down 

 on the Government maps of this sec- 

 tion as a sand dune. 3 During the 



1 John Neafie collection, 20-2558; Chenoweth, 

 20-3498. 



2 Evening Telegram, March 14, 1903. 



3 New York Geologic Folio. 



summer of 1904, Mr. Calver with 

 Messrs. Hall and Bolton uncovered 

 nine or more pockets to the southwest 

 of the graveyard. 1 These pockets 

 all seem to have been of the same pe- 

 riod as the others, and all appear to 

 have been on the original ground sur- 

 face, although those farther up the 

 hill were some four feet under the 

 present surface. In one of these 

 pockets, was found the complete skele- 

 ton of a dog 2 in another, a turtle shell; 

 two others contained complete snake 

 skeletons; while a fifth held the frag- 

 ments of a small pottery vessel. The 

 pockets were small, being about three 

 feet in diameter and of equal depth, 

 showing no signs of having first been 

 used as fireplaces and then filled up, 

 though charcoal was scattered among 

 the shells. Almost all the relics from 

 Van Cortlandt Park were found by 

 Mr. James in pockets similar to these. 

 During Indian troubles in 1675, the 

 Wickquaskeek at Ann's Hook, now 

 Pelham Neck, were told "to remove 

 within a fortnight to their usual winter 

 quarters within Hellgate upon this 

 Island." River says, "This winter 

 retreat was either the woodlands be- 

 tween Harlem Plains and Kingsbridge, 

 at that date still claimed by these 

 Indians as hunting grounds, or Rech- 

 awanes and adjoining lands on the 

 Bay of Hellgate, as the words 'within 

 Hellgate' would strictly mean, and 

 which, by the immense shellbeds found 

 there formerly, is proved to have been 

 a favorite Indian resort." 3 A little 

 later the Indians asked to be allowed 

 to return to their maize lands on Man- 



1 New York Tribune, Oct. 30, 1904, and New 

 York Sun, Dec. 14, 1904. 



2 All that could be saved of this skeleton has 

 been presented to the Museum by Mr. Edward 

 Hagaman Hall. 



3 History of Harlem, p. 366. 



