ANCIENT PATHWAYS ACROSS NEW YORK
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John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2018 May 8 initial
2020 June 27 current
Introduction
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NYSkiers in past couple years are taking interest in activities of
cultural orgs, those without a dedicated astronomy theme. one such org
is the American Institute of Archaeology, New York Section. Its talks
touch on geography, surveying, GIS, remote imaging, even actual
astronomy, of ancient cultures.
It convenes in assorted places around Manhattan. On 2018 May 7,
Monday, it came to the City University's Graduate Center. I went
straight from work, the Center being around the corner from my
office, on Fifth Avenue. The talk started at 18:00 EDST.
The talk was 'Ancient pathways across New York' by Ms Laurie Rush,
Cultural Resources manager at Form Drum. She highlighted the native
Americans in northern New York state, near Lake Ontario.
fort Drum
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Fort Drum is in northern New York state, in Jefferson county,
near Sackets Harbor.It covers ~433 km2, almost entirely land. There
are many villages in its vicinity with one large town, Watertown NY, as
the service center for the county.
The land now in Fort Drum was first crewed in 1809 by the US Army
to monitor St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. It defended these
waters during the War of 1812.
In 1908 Pine Camp opened on the site with army units rotated thru
it. It had no permanent resident unit. Pine Camp was in service thru
World War II. It continually purchased additional land around it to
eventually reach fort Drum's present size.
Pine Camp was renamed Camp Drum in 1951. Then name changed to Fort
Drum in 1974 when standing units were based there. A 'camp' has no
standing unit. Units rotate thru it from time to time. A 'fort' is
the home of a standing unit.
Fort Drum has a cultural resources office to chronicle, document,
study, preserve relics of early native Americans in the era before
European presence. Ms Rush is the current manager of this office.
Great Lakes
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The Great lakes are a chain of five humongous fresh-water lakes in
the ventral region of North America, The lakes concatenate from the
lower, eastern, end: Lake Ontario Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior.
Lake Ontario empties into St Lawrence River, which flows into the
Atlantic Ocean.
Four lakes are shared with the United States and Canada. lake
Michigan happens to be entirely within the US.
The Great Lakes are a water route for seafaring ships to reach the
interior of the continent. They are connected today by canals and
locks, mostly built in the 1950s as the Great Lakes-St lawrence Seaway
project. It allows ocean vessels to sail to ports on on all of the
lakes.
Before the Seaway improvements, the lakes were impassable by large
ships because they were joined by shallow rivers, rapids, falls. In
the War of 1812, for example, US and British ships were built at ports
on the lake they battled in. After the war the ships were retired or
junked, with no way to deploy them else where.
Within a lake the water can be horribly nasty in storms, with
conditions found on the high seas. Ships simply stayed in port.
For winter weather, the lakes supply moisture to air flowing from
Canada and North Pole. The moisture turns to snow to fall in thick
decks on the south, US, side of the lakes.
An other winter feature is that the lake shores freeze over,
halting navigation until the spring. In really severe winter even
Niagara Falls froze solid.
The vast territory of the lakes suffers a varied rain/snow from
lake to lake. Before regulation and navigation projects the flow and
elevation changed erraticly. Routinely the shores took floods and
erosion and the lake junctions were sometimes too wild to travel thru.
Today the flows between the lakes and the elevation are closely
regulated by US-Quebec-Canada agreements. (Quebec fronts St Lawrence
River, the outlet of the lakes). The control of of water is by the
locks and canals, and several barrages, at the junction s of the
lakes.
Cargo Traffic
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Until the railroad, long before the navigation upgrades of the
lakes, moving cargo from lake to lake was done by portage.Portage In
this process the cargo of the ship in one lake was bodily unloaded,
carted by wagon to the ship in the next lake, and reloaded onto that
ship. In the era before modern cargo handling machines, this portage
was a titanic task for humans and horses.
One of the earliest applications of the railroad was to link the
transfer ports of the lakes and then to bypass the portages for an
all-rail route along the lake shores.
Before the settlers arrived, the natives had small craft, canoes,
that could be lifted from one lake and carried to the next one. The
labor for humans and animals was immense because the natives did not
know about the wheel and had only dogs and, maybe, goats. Soonest the
settlers arrived, they acquired horses and wagons by trade.
I don't know if the natives had commerce with the opposite shore
of the lakes, all I heard at the lecture was trade along the US side.
To me it would be a reckless attempt, given the frail boats and the
expanse and dangers of long water travel away from shore.
Lake Ontario
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Lake Ontario is the lowest of the Great Lakes. It discharges into
St Lawrence River in northern New York state, near Fort Drum. It is
filled from lake Erie thru Niagara Falls near Buffalo NY and by many
rivers all around its shore. The lake's mean elevation is 74 meters
above sea level.
The lake was formed by the last Ice Age about 16,000 years ago. On
the New York side the early shoreline was 15-40 km inland from the
present one. Ms Rush explained there are shoreline terrains, like
dried beaches and run-up ridges, delineating the old shore.
The New York side of the lake is the shallowest part, with debris
of shipwrecks littering its bottom. Large ships must stay within the
deep-water lanes well away from shore.
Rivers
----
The northern border of New York has three regimes of river. The
eastern side of the state has rivers flowing east into Lake Champlain.
The middle part has north-flowing rivers into St Lawrence River. To
the west the rivers flow west into Lake Ontario.
I lost count of the rivers, even tho I work with them in my
career, but there are enough to impede east-west travel in northern
New York. Every river has portages to get over the ridge between them.
The rivers were in the early years free running and could handle
only small craft. Today due to heavy development of hydroelectric
projects on most of them, there is almost no shipping on the rivers.
Recreation boats are placed in the water between the projects and
stay there until lifted out.
Native Americans
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The first explorers didn't distinguish the various tribes of
natives properly, as we now know them from modern study. there are
several tribes grouped under a roof name 'Iroquois'.
The tribes traveled widely over northern New York and in Lake
Ontario. They traded among each other and with the explorers..
The explorers traded tools, clothing, horses, hardware,
housewares to the natives. They received harvest, crafts, skins and
furs, scouting services, protection.
The early treatment of the Iroquois natives was hardly mature,
since they were 'savages' compared to the explorers. The natives held
their own, thanks to their high order of society, and by the early
1700s worked with the explorers, and now settlers, into formal
agreements and alliances.
Native Americans are still widely called 'Indians'. When the
initial explorers reached the New World they landed at islands in the
Caribbean Sea. They believed they were in islands near China. They did
not know they came onto a whole other land mass.
These islands are the Indies, now East Indies, and the inhabitants
are, well, Indians. The islands actually explored are our West
Indies.
When by th early 1500s we recognized the existence of the New
World, the word 'Indian' for the natives here was embedded into the
language.
Settlers
------
The first explorers to come into the Lake Ontario region were the
French in the early 1600s. They diffused thruout the Great Lakes and
claimed territory for France.
In the mid to late 1600s British settlers entered the region, and
claimed the land for England. At first the two countries were thinned
out to avoid casual conflict and more or less coexisted.
By the early 1700s friction between France and England erupted in
all of their contact zones around the world. This was the world's
first global war, waged not only in the Great Lakes but in Southeast
Asia, Africa, the Caribbean Saw, India, Middle East, South Pacific
Ocean, China.
The warfighting in the Great Lakes is, from the eye of the British
holdings on the East Coast of the US, the French & Indian Wars. The
name comes for the alliance of some native tribes with France.
Some other tribes united with England. I'm guessing that French
folk know this war as the English & Indian War. The warfighting winded
down by the 1760s with England taking over almost all of France's
territory around the Great Lakes.
One anomaly remains. Quebec, while in British-held Canda, was
resistant enough to retain its French identity. Even today Quebec
frequently acts on its own, apart from the rest of Canada, in dealing
with other countries.
From the late 1700s, all parties have peaceful relations with the
Iroquois. The United States and New York state recognize the Iroquois
group as a semiautonymous nation.
Pathways
------
Laurie explained how the Iroquois travelled around. With no wheel
or traction animals they y hauled sleds and skids loaded with cargo.
These were pulled by humans and, as I recall, dogs.
For water travel the natives had two kinds of canoe. One was the
stereotypical canoe made of tree bark sewed onto a a fuselage of tree
branches. The seams and holes were sealed with resin or sap. This
craft carried one persona a small bag of items,
The other was the dugout canoe, a large tree trunk burned and
scrapped out into a heavy strong boat. It carried two or three people
and cargo.
Both canoes were paddled, with no rudder or sails/. The settlers
could have shown sails to the Iroquois, being that they arrived in
America by sail-ship. Rush said there is no hint that the natives ever
tried them for their boats.
Paddling upstream on a river must have been a strenuous task.
Rivers around Fort Drum tend to be fast-0running with rough beds.
There was the constant danger of puncture and overturning. Downstream
travel was easier on muscles but still faced the other dangers.
Bark canoes were frail and often broke apart against the river
bottom. The dugout canoe was stronger, to withstand collision and
corrasion.
With the three zones of river, long-distance travel called for
portage and fording. Fording is crossing a river on foot while hauling
or carrying the cargo and boat. Portage is lifting the boat and cargo
from one river and carrying them to an other.
The Iroquois developed a high skill in knowing the best places for
fording and portage. These were joined by trails, well worn from long
use. Where two trails crossed a junction was cleared for travelers to
meet up. Laurie wasn't sure what the junctions actually served, but
they easily could ne places where cargo between intersecting
travellers was exchanged. An other was for a ceremony where natives
from along the pathways could get to.
Migration
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One of the more surprising discoveries of Fort Drum's cultural
resources office, with its science partners, was the migration history
of the Iroquois. Conventional belief was that the natives entered the
Great Lakes area from the north and west. Like other natives whose
history is more certain, the Iroquois percolated thru North America
from the land-bridge between Russia and Alaska.
Finds at various exploration sites revealed artifacts and relics
indicative of people far to the east, from the Atlantic Ocean. An
initial thought was that the items came from trade with eastern
tribes.
Other factors seem to show that the Iroquois themselfs drifted to
lake Ontario. One factor is the Ice Age. it would be far easier to
walk across land south of the ice front from the Atlantic coast than
to walk across the ice from west and north.
An other is the pattern of abandoned shore camps. Right after the
ice melted away to expose Lake Ontario, the lake was larger than now.
Native camps were built on the shore in New York some 15-40 km farther
inland than the present shore. Rush's office found remains of these
camps by items associated with waterfront activity. As the lake shrank
the old camps were left behind and new ones were built on the
retreating shore.
This resettilng of camps would be simpler for people already on
the south side of the lake, migrating there by land from the east,
than for new arrivals from over the receding ice pack and paddling
across the lake.
Ms Rush reminded that the migration pattern is still under
investigation but it is no longer a given that the Iroquois came
across the land-bridge.
Social structure
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The settlers were amazed at the high organization in the iroquois
society. From stories they heard from settlers else where in the
Americas the natives should be mao-maos with a tribal chief and every
one else scratching out a living. The amazement was all the greater
because in the 1600s and 1700s Europe was a collection of fiefdoms and
kingdoms. Even in England the Crown dominated society.
The Iroquois had a scheme of government, parliaments, tribunals,
administrations. It was common for a proposed agreement put forth by
the settlers to be sent to a native office to look over and make
suggested changes.
Major topics affecting the Iroquois were discussed in the
parliament. This was attended by adults in the tribe. When a native
officer no longer could continue service, the parliament helped select
a replacement in an ordered transfer of rule.
Laurie compared the government of the Iroquois with plans by the
Founding Fathers of the United States. They studied the native society
specially the federated system. Five tribes had certain functions in
running the society. A roof agency, staffed by delegates from the
tribes, had certain others. The tribes were the Caguya, Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca. The tribes had a checks and balances in the
system to curb one tribe trying to take over tthe whole group.
Our federal government of nation and states derives recta mente
from the Iroquois native Americans!
Women in society
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By far the most astounding feature of the Iroquois society
described by the settlers was the standing of women. In Europe, then
and well into the 20th century, women were subordinate under men.
Men ran business, industry, science, civic affairs, medicine,
commerce, finance, warfighting. women stayed at home to raise
children, housekeep, prepare meals, do laundry,, mend clothes,
caretake animals.
During trade meetings the settlers saw women in the native
delegation, engaging in dialog, showing and demonstrating articles
for trade. In the villages they saw women running shops and offices,
handling wampum, supervising men.
On top of this, the settlers were floored at women sitting in the
tribal meetings. The women actively discussed tribal topics, and
argued effectively for their views.
One amazing feature was the women's approval of warfighting. On
the occasion when a tribe may go to war, the women in the tribe had
final word. The reasoning was that the effects of war fall heaviest on
the women. They lose their men, household support, labor and skills.
It was natural that the potential major victims of war should decide
if the men go to war.
Rush mentioned the possibility that the Founding Fathers thought
'man' in thrir work meant 'human', to include women.
It seems that this man-&-women connotation was absent from the
Fathers's work. This apparent historical glitch could induce deeper
inquiry. The Fathers studied the Iroquois, in order to formulate our
federal system. How did they miss the chance to endow the new nation
with male-female parity? In the stead, the 20th century had to open
for laws and constitution amendments extended male provisions to
women.
In 1848 a convention of women agitated in Seneca Falls NY for
women's rights. It banked its arguments off of the status of women in
the surrounding Iroquois tribes.In 1969,.again based on the Iroquois
treatment of women, the National Women's Hall of Fame was established
in Seneca Falls, near the monument for the 1848 meeting.
When Fort Drum meets with the Iroquois on a mutual topic. Women
are members of the party and are the commonly the officer signing the
documents with Fort Drum.
Conclusion
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This lecture filled in holes in my own store of American history,
geography, politics, civics.it is one more instance why I include
these cultural items in NYC Events. They round out the home astronomer
and fortify him in carrying out his profession.
In my own education a segment about native Americans was part of
the junior high school class on New York State history. The main fact
was that the iroquois were five tribes comprising the 'Five Nations'
or the 'Iroquois Nation' and they fought with France in the French &
Indian Wr. We learned the names of the tribes, which I let out of mind
after the final exam. 1Ny next encounter with the Iroquois was a next
door neighbor whose family was Mohawk. It spoke Mohawk at home and
built a ceremony room in the cellar. He, like many Mohawks, was a
high-iron worker with one job on some World's Fair pavilions and the
Verrazanno Bridge.
My current relation with the Iroquois comes from the hydroelectric
projects in northern New York, one being inside Fort Drum! My office
must circulate proposed plans to modify the project to affected
publics, including the Iroquois Nation. The review and comment from
the Iroquois sometimes is signed by a female officer.