s 
¢ 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
st: OF STATEN ISLAND. 
VOL. IX, No 3. 
The regular monthly meeting of the 
Association was held at the residence 
of Mr. Wm. H. Mitchill, Port Richmond. 
In the absence of the president Mr. 
Mitchill was elected chairman fro fem. 
Mr. Herbert M. Dunning, New Dorp, 
and Mr. Benjamin J. Stanton, Tomp- 
kinsville, were elected to active mem- 
bership. 
Mr. A B. Skinner read the following 
paper: 
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE ALGONKIN 
INDIANS OF STATEN ISLAND. 
When the early Dutch settlers and 
explorers arrived in New York Bay 
they found its shores inhabited by 
numerous small but fierce and warlike 
tribes of Indians, of the great Algonkin 
stock. Manhattan and Long Island, 
and the nearby mainland, were in- 
habited by subtribes of the Mohegan or 
Wolf Indians, while Staten Island and 
New Jersey were in the territory of the 
Leni—Lenape or Delaware Indians. 
These Indians were brave and war- 
like. They cultivated some maize and 
tobacco, but lived largely upon the fish 
and shell fish which abounded in the 
vicinity, although they were also good 
hunters, as the bones of the lynx, bear, 
wolf, beaver, deer, wild turkey and 
other animals, so abundant.in the shell 
heaps, prove. 
JANUARY 6th, 1904. 
Their lodges were built of bark or 
salt-meadow grass, and sometimes these 
rivalled in length the famous long 
houses of the Iroquois. Some of the 
thatched houses, however, were not more 
than thirty feet in circumference and 
were shaped like a hay stack, with a 
smoke hole at the top. Around the 
wall there was a raised seat or couch 
upon which the occupants reclined or 
Sat. 
In order that the lodge might not be 
burned too frequently, (for according 
to the Shinnecock Indians of Long Isl- 
and this was the greatest drawback to 
life in a thatched lodge) the fire was 
kept ina deep pit in the center, and 
almost all rubbish, such as broken 
pottery, pipes, bones and the like, fonnd 
their way into this convenient receptacle 
where, preserved by the charcoal and 
the lime from the inevitable oyster and 
clam shells, they have remained to this 
day. The discovery of several of these 
pits has been reported from time to 
time in our Proceedings. Often in 
winter, when the ground was frozen too 
hard for digging, the dead were interred 
in these all useful pits, and in war time 
it is probable that—many ; precious 
articles were concealed in the ashes: 
The canoes whith our <pndj ams: used 
were made of wood Wed cAtite birch not 
growing as far\south as pure tree 
Rational 
