8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



York but little over 200 years ago. Articles of shell have also been 

 sadly misunderstood. 



As to material, there are also valuable suggestions in some of 

 these articles of polished stone. The aborigines had taste in selec- 

 tion when they required ornaments, and the Huronian or striped 

 slate frequently appears, a few celts even being made of this. This 

 indicates commerce, for it came from places farther north and west. 

 Travel and traffic existed then as now. Gorgets are usually of fine 

 stone, and are rarely unfinished. As a rule, they were brought here 

 in perfection. For celts, however, any pebble might answer, and 

 many are of ordinary field stones, always accessible to the common 

 people. The abundance of basalt celts, even on recent sites shows 

 a choice in material, and some of the green stones are beautiful 

 indeed. Pestles are often well worked, but yet oftener are slightly 

 adapted pebbles. Some are of great size. Hammer stones sur- 

 vived almost every thing else, but stone balls, used in war clubs by 

 their fathers, are preserved by New York Indians yet. Such 

 features will be more fully seen as we proceed. 



When the white man came to New York, the Mahikans and other 

 kindred nations occupied the Hudson River and the seacoast. West 

 of these was the territory of the Iroquois, Andastes and Eries, also 

 of one family. At that period the Iroquois at least used but little 

 stone, nor are the finer early articles found on their earlier 

 sites. As a rule, their pipes were of clay, ingeniously ornamented, 

 and whether they had ever used or made others may be a question. 

 Obtaining suitable tools from the white man, they afterwards made 

 pipes of stone, in a sense going back to the stone age. The deli- 

 cate drilling of the pipe stone, so often seen, was unattainable with 

 aboriginal tools, and this is true of the small shell beads. Pipes and 

 ornaments were articles of common use, however, and some nations 

 were celebrated for their work of this kind, but we need never forget 

 that most of their finery came from frailer materials. Within the 

 historic period it is probable that many of the New York stone 

 pipes were made by the Cherokees, as in earlier colonial times they 

 were made in New England. Many stone implements, common 

 elsewhere, are notably absent here, showing that some large nations 



