Literature Relating to Staten Island 



Anthropological Papers of the American Mi'seum of 

 Natural Hlstory. Vol. IIP 



The first 62 pages of tliis volume, with five text figures, twelve 

 plates, ami niaj) of Indian village sites, are devoted to a consider- 

 ation of the Lenape Indians of Staten Island hy Alanson Skinner. 

 The author considers the suhject under the heads of Archaeolog- 

 ical sites, Collections of Specimens, Description of Specimens, 

 History and Ethnography of Staten Island. Cultural Reconstruc- 

 tion, Resume, and l'il)liograph\-. According to Mr. .Skinner the 

 Indians found on the island upon llie arrival of the first white 

 settlers belonged to the Unami division of the r.enni f.enape or 

 Delaware Indians. The local band known as the llackensacks 

 occupied the north shore, and the Raritans the southern cud of 

 the island. The evidence of this division is found in the imple- 

 ments discovered on the village sites of the two areas mentioned. 



In the introduction to the volume, which contains eight other 

 articles on the Indians of Greater New York, the editor points 

 out that the work on Staten Island is more advanced than that 

 of Manhattan and the adjacent shores. He further states: " This 

 Island presents somewhat uni(|ue conditions in that it constitutes 

 a definite geographical unit of convenient size but without cflfcc- 

 tive barriers to intrusion ; that its archaeological remains seem to 

 have belonged to one and the same culture, that of the historic 

 Indians; and in that it appears to have been uninhabited during 



remote times." 



W. T. D. 



* Hudson-Fulton Pul)lic:ition. TIic Indians of Greater Xew York and 

 the Lower Hudson. Edited hy Clark \\■is^.ler. 1000. 



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