58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Certain studies are conducted among the Indian reservations 

 of the State proper with special reference to obtaining a complete 

 knowledge of what is remembered of tribal ceremonies and customs. 

 An endeavor is also made to provide these Indians with such 

 information as they may call for. This is justified by certain pro- 

 visions in the Education Law. Help has been rendered the Oneidas, 

 Stockbridges, Senecas, Cayugas and St Regis-Mohawks. 



During the Constitutional Convention the president and secre- 

 tary of the Seneca Nation were present in Albany and participated 

 in the reception of the Education Department to the members of 

 the Convention. Secretary Walter Kennedy, in full Seneca regalia, 

 presented for inspection to the Hon. Elihu Root, President of the 

 Convention, the great constitutional wampum belt of the Iroquois 

 Confederacy. This belt is in the possession of the State Museum, 

 which by the consent of the Iroquois Confederacy and by act of 

 the Legislature is trustee in perpetuity for the wampum archives 

 of the Iroquois. 



The Owasco Algonkian site. An early Indian village or camp 

 site on the shores of Owasco lake, near its present outlet, has been 

 reported by several students of archeology during the period of 

 twenty years and considerable quantity of material has been dis- 

 covered in the vicinity. In the spring of 191 5, Mr E. H. Gohl of 

 Auburn, by fortunate circumstance, discovered one of the large 

 dump heaps of the village and succeeded in unearthing several 

 hundred fragments of pottery and numerous stone implements. At 

 the joint invitation of the Auburn and Syracuse Electric Railway 

 Company and Mr Gohl, this Department was enabled to make an 

 examination of the site by excavation. 



An inspection of the site led to the conclusion that it was a 

 small village site. The ground which it covered was on one of the 

 shore or beach lines of Owasco lake, that had been laid down when 

 the lake was twenty or thirty feet higher than at present. The 

 Indian site covered the slope at a point most convenient to access 

 to the outlet, which was undoubtedly a fishing place. 



Mr Gohl had opened up one refuse heap and had discovered the 

 fragments of two large pots which he succeeded in partially restor- 

 ing, when the operations of the Museum comfnenced. Excavations 

 covering a period of about three weeks resulted in obtaining some 

 two hundred fragments of pottery including rims, fragments of 

 about ten pipes and one complete pipe. The implements of chipped 

 flint weie rare and nearly all of a triangular pattern and the arrow- 

 heads are not notched. One ovate knife is of chalcedony. The 



