74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



HUMAN HISTORY AND INDUSTRIES 

 The Indians 



Before the coming of the white man, northern New York was 

 occupied" solely by Indians. There is no evidence, however, that 

 the Adirondack wilderness ever had many permanent Indian settle- 

 ments. Doubtless there were a few more or less well-defined trails 

 through the wilderness, but the great Indian traffic ways between 

 East and West, and North and South, were the low valleys sur- 

 rounding the Adirondacks. 



The Indians which occupied northern, central and much of west- 

 ern New York were known to the French as the " Iroquois," to the 

 English as the " Five Nations," and they were called by themselves 

 " Ho-de-no-sau-nee " meaning the " People of the Long House." 

 The Five Nations constituted an Indian league or confederacy which 

 became very powerful. Comprising the nations of the league were 

 the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, with 

 rather definite property lines separating them. The Mohawks 

 claimed much of the Mohawk valley and all the Adirondack region 

 except a little of the western side which latter came within the ter- 

 ritory of the Oneidas. A Canadian tribe of Algonquin descent, 

 however, also claimed the northern portion of the Great Wilder- 

 ness which slopes oflf toward the St Lawrence river. This 

 Canadian tribe was derisively known to the Iroquois as the "Adiron- 

 dacks " meaning " Tree-eaters." The disputed territory was very 

 bloody battleground according to old Indian traditions. 



As Sylvester has said : "Among all the Indians of the New World, 

 there were none so politic and intelligent, none so fierce and brave, 

 none with so many germs of heroic virtues mingled with their 

 savage vices, as the true Iroquois • — the people of the Five Nations. 

 They were a terror to all the surrounding tribes, whether of their 

 own or of Algonquin speech. In 1650 they overran the country of 

 the Hurons; in 1651 they destroyed the Neutral Nation (on the 

 west) ; in 1654 they exterminated the Eries (on the west) ; in 1672 

 they conquered the Andastes (on the south) and reduced them to 

 the most abject submission. They followed the warpath, and their 

 war cry was heard westward to the Mississippi, and southward to 

 the great gulf. The New England nations, as well as the river tribes 

 along the Hudson, whose warriors trembled at the name of Mohawk, 

 all paid them tribute. The poor Montagnais on the far-ofi Saguenay 

 would start from their midnight sleep, and run terror-stricken from 



