BULL. 30] 



FORT YUKON 



471 



aded. There are, or were until recently, 

 earthen embankments and inclosures in 

 New York which, as Squier has shown, 

 mark the sites of palisaded forts similar to 

 those of the Iroquois observed by Cham- 

 plain and Cartier. These were often po- 

 lygonal, of double or trijile stockades, as 

 that at Hochelaga which Cartier says was 

 of "three courses of rampires, one within 

 another." Some were strengthened 1)y 

 braces and had beams running round 

 them near the top, where stones and 

 other missiles were placed ready to be 

 hurled upon besiegers. The walls of some 

 of these fortifications were20 ft high. One 

 of the polygonal forts in w. New York, 

 however, was overlooked by a hill from 

 which arrows could easily be shot into the 

 inclosure. Most of the early figures of these 

 forts represent them as having a single 

 entrance between overlapping ends of the 

 stockade; there is one, however (Under- 

 bill, News from America, 1638), which 

 shows two overlappings. When first seen 

 by the whites most of the villages from 

 Florida to the Potomac were protected 

 with surrounding stockades, which are 

 represented in De Bry as single with one 

 opening where the ends overlap. The 

 construction of these surrounding pali- 

 sades was practically the same, whether 

 they inclosed a single house or 50 houses. 

 In some sections a ditch was usually dug, 

 both within and outside of the palisade. 

 A few of the forts in s. New England were 

 square, but the circu\ar form generally 

 prevailed ( Willoughby in Am. Anthrop., 

 VIII, no. 1, 1906). The fortress built by 

 King Philip in the swamp at South Ken- 

 sington, R. I., consisted of a double row of 

 palisades, flanked by a great abatis, outside 

 of which w'as a deep ditch. At one corner 

 a gap of the length of one log was left as an 

 entrance, the breastwork here being only 

 4 or 5 ft high ; and this passage was de- 

 fended liy a well-constructed blockhouse, 

 whilst the ditch was crossed by a single 

 log wiiich served as a bridge. Stockaded 

 villages were also common as far w. as 

 Wisconsin. Stone walls, which C. C. 

 Jones considered defensive, have been 

 observed on Stone mtn., Mt Yona, and 

 other peaks of n. Georgia. De Soto found 

 strongly fortified villages in his passage 

 through the Gulf states and Arkansas. 



Vancouver (Voy., in, 289, 1798) men- 

 tions villages on Kupreanof id., situated 

 on the summits of steep, almost inacces- 

 sible rocks and fortified with strong plat- 

 forms of wood laid upon the most elevated 

 part of the rock, which projected at the 

 sides so as to overhang the declivity. At 

 the edge of the platform there was usu- 

 ally a sort of parapet of logs placed 

 one upon another. This type, accord- 

 ing to Swanton, was quite common on 

 the N. W. coast. The Skagit tribe, ac- 



cording to Wilkes, combined dwellings 

 and forts, and a similar custom was fol- 

 lowed by some of the Haida clans. 

 Wilkes mentions also inclosures 400 ft 

 long, which were constructed of pickets 

 about 30 ft long thrust deep into the 

 ground, the interior being divided into 

 roofed lodges. The Clallam also had a 

 fort of pickets, 150 ft square, roofed over, 

 and divided into compartments for fami- 

 lies. No stockades seem to have been 

 used by the Ntlakyapamuk, but for- 

 tresses or fortified houses were at one time 

 in use in a few places. These defenses, 

 according to Boas, consisted of logs placed 

 lengthwise on the ground one above an- 

 other and covered with brush and earth, 

 loopholes being left at places between the 

 logs. According to the same authority, 

 some of the stockades of British Columbia 

 were provided w' ith underground passages 

 as a means of escape. It has been a general 

 custom of the Indians of the plains, when 

 in danger of being attacked by a superior 

 force, to dig a pit or pits in the loose, gener- 

 ally sandy soil, throwing the earth around 

 the margin to increase the height of the 

 defense, the bank of a creek or a gully 

 being selected when within reach, as 

 defense of one side only was necessary. 

 Native drawings of some of these defenses 

 are given by Mooney ( 17th Rep. B. A. E., 

 271-274, 1898). In the S. W. the cliff- 

 dwellings (q. V.) were places of security, 

 easy of defense. The large compound 

 structures known as pueblos (q. v.), in 

 which the lower stories formerly had few 

 or no wall openings, were fortifications as 

 well as habitations, while in some cases 

 the mesas on which they are built are in 

 themselves well-nigh impregnable. In 

 the drainage area of the Gila and Salado 

 of s. Arizona there were defensive struc- 

 tures, as shown by their massive walls, in 

 which the former inhabitants could take 

 refuge in time of danger. Many of the 

 isolated peaks of s. Arizona, n. Sonora, 

 and Chihuahua contain the remains of 

 stone breastworks and fortifications. See 

 Architecture, Casa Grande, Cliff-dwellings, 

 Habitations, Mounds, Pueblos, War and 

 War discipline. 



In addition to the authorities cited, con- 

 sult Bancroft, Native Races, i, 1886; Bry, 

 CoUectiones Peregrinationem, 1590-1634; 

 Jesuit Relations, Thwaites ed., i-lxxiii, 

 1896-1901; V. Mindeleff in 8th Rep. B. 



A. E., 1891; C. Mindeleff in 13th and 16th 

 Reps. B. A. E., 1896, 1897; Scjuier, Antiq. 

 of N. Y., 1851; Squier and Davis, Ancient 

 Monuments, 1848; Thomas in 12th Rep. 



B. A. E.,1894. (c. T.) 

 Fort Yukon. A Kutchakutchin village 



and trading post of 107 inhabitants at the 

 junction of Yukon and Porcupine rs., 

 Alaska. — Petroff in 10th Census, Alaska, 

 62, 1884. 



