﻿44 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The field of research. The special line of investigation to 

 which the attention of the Archeologist is directed is that of study- 

 ing the culture of the aborigines of New York, both that of the 

 past and of the present. This is done in order to bring to light 

 data for correlation. Many of the fundamental facts of anthro- 

 pology have been gleaned from the study of the American Indians. 

 In our State there lived, and now live, representatives of a very 

 important and highly developed Indian stock. Much has been 

 written of the New York aborigines, but much of their culture re- 

 mains unrecorded and various facts they present are very significant. 



Our work is limited primarily by the lines of the State. Within 

 these bounds we make systematic surveys and excavations of the 

 various sites of aboriginal occupation, and instal the various arti- 

 facts and other materials bearing on the culture-history of our 

 Indians in the archeological collections of the State Museum. The 

 State is our field and wherever suitable sites can be found these are 

 examined or excavated. This, with the collection of the relics and 

 specimens of Indian art, constitutes the work in archeology. 



Various tribes and stocks have inhabited this area during remote 

 times and even now remnants of some exist. Each tribe or stock, 

 except perhaps the earliest, has left traces by which it may be dif- 

 ferentiated from the rest. To sift out the problem of the different 

 successive or contemporary occupations, to discover lines and times 

 of migrations and to determine the cultural facts, form a field of re- 

 search for constant activity. 



The Indians that yet remain in this State are the various tribes or 

 nations of the Iroquois, viz : the St Regis Mohawk in Franklin and 

 St Lawrence counties ; the Oneida in Madison county ; the Onon- 

 daga in Onondaga county; the Seneca in Cattaraugus, Erie and 

 Chautauqua counties; the Tuscarora in Niagara county; and the 

 Cayuga who live mostly with the Cattaraugus Seneca. A few 

 Abenaki, survivors of the Canadian Algonquin, live in the Adiron- 

 dacks in the vicinity of Lake George, while others are scattered 

 throughout the State. 



Few tribes of North American Indians have occupied so promi- 

 nent a place in history and literature as the Iroquois. Their con- 

 quests, their government, their endurance as a people, and their 

 keen intellect, wonderful sagacity and political capacity as indi- 

 viduals have excited the admiration of even their enemies. Thou- 

 sands of pages have been written on the Iroquois and yet so full 

 of interest is their history that as a subject for the historian, the 

 romancer or the anthropologist, they furnish a never failing topic 

 for discussion. 



