444 THE SENECA NATION 



lower jaw. Bones well preserved. 

 Flexed . 



No. 33. Leg bones only. Knife. 



No. 34. Empty grave. No bones re- Paint throughout, 

 maining. Glass beads. 



Cache of articles, 16 feet east of grave No. 7. Four feet deep, 

 bottom on red clay. The hole was very narrow. No bones 

 near. Awls, knives, a brass spigot, a round box of ver- 

 milion paint, a European comb. 



Life of the Senecas from 1655 to 1687. 



Archeology and history show that the whole period from 

 1655 until 1687 was one of European domination. The Senecas 

 seem to have come in contact with traders from both New Am- 

 sterdam and Quebec very early and by 1655 they had come to 

 depend upon the traders for nearly every article in their whole 

 economy. For them the Age of Stone had come to an abrupt 

 end, possibly a whole generation before Father Chaumonot had 

 entered their country, at a time when their chief towns, the pre- 

 decessors of Totiakto and Gandagora, were far up in the hill 

 country at the headwaters of Honeoye Creek. The hotheaded 

 young warriors who made the desperate attempt to stop Denon- 

 ville's army were far removed from the age in which their grand- 

 fathers chipped their rude weapons from the chert which they 

 picked up in the nearby creek bottoms, and they were as depen- 

 dent upon the armories of England as were the soldiers of the 

 French governor upon those of France. 



The village sites of the period were selected with care, two 

 conditions being essential, namely, ease of defense and fertile 

 soil. Several of the villages were situated upon high hills, others 

 were partly surrounded by gullies. Gandagora was on a hill 

 which rises two hundred and fifty feet above the surrounding 

 valleys. Totiakto was in the bend of Honeoye Creek, which 

 defended it on two sides. The earlier 'sites were similarly 

 placed. The creek bottoms and upland plains which surrounded 

 Totiakto and Gandagora were fertile and entirely suited to the 

 raising of corn. Nearness to water though essential was not a 

 primary consideration. The water supply of the large villages 

 was from springs. A few depended upon streams. The strong 



