1891.] An Indian Grave in Western New York. 119 
AN INDIAN GRAVE IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
BY A. L. BENEDICT, M.D. 
OUTH of Lake Ontario, between the Genesee River on the 
west and Canandaigua Lake and its outlet on the east, lies a 
fertile country, studded with knolls and hills from twenty to two- 
hundred-and-fifty feet in height. West of the Genesee River, as 
far as Buffalo and Lake Erie, the land is level, with only occa- 
sional elevations to relieve the monotony. East of Canandaigua 
Lake the hills enlarge into miniature mountain ranges, five to fif- 
teen miles long, four or five miles from valley to valley, and five 
or six hundred feet- in height. 
Nearly the whole of this region west of Seneca Lake was in- 
habited by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois, but only in the mid- 
dle portion was there much communication between the Europeans 
and the Indians untillate in the eighteenth century, when the 
usurpation of the land by the white settlers was accomplished in 
a comparatively short time. Hence, as a rule, the Indian village 
sites and burial places of the western and eastern portions of the 
Seneca territory yield relics of genuine aboriginal workmanship, 
whereas in the central portion, in which the Indian population 
held its own against foreign encroachment for more than a cen- 
tury, European influence is indicated by an abundance of iron 
axes and knives, glass beads, copper ornaments, brass kettles, and 
a variety of other articles found in connection with flint arrow- 
heads, stone tomahawks, wampum, and unglazed pottery. 
One of the largest and best-known sites of Indian occupancy 
in this region is on a large hill near the thriving village of Victor. 
Some idea of the importance of this Indian village may be derived 
from the following considerations: The hill is one of the most 
commanding localities in the whole middle territory, descending 
so abruptly on the west and north as to make it a vantage-point 
in case of war, sloping more gradually in other directions. At 
least ten acres of the hill-top were so densely populated that even 
at this late day, after half a century of cultivation and the visits of 
