Indian Life on the Hudson River by Peggy Turco Ever since the last continental glacier receded from North of farmers plowing up stone artifacts in their fields. It is upon America l 0,000 to 12,000 years ago, people have inhabited the the Hudson 's banks and those of its tributaries that palisaded valley. Beginning perhaps 3,000 years ago, the Lenape and fortified villages were built, surrounded by earthworks and/or related Algonquin Indians developed a culture intimately walls of vertically placed logs. We also read in explorers' and intertwined with the area's ecosystems and often centered on colonists' chronicles of many unfortified villages on both the river itself. It was to the river that these people looked for banks of the Hudson. These early reports often comment that much of their food, for transportation and communication. It many of these seemed to be transitory, as the natives did not also played a part in their ceremonial lives. appear to use any one site for very long. The Lenape, which translates as "The Common People," But what early Europeans witnessed and recorded provides or-as they were named by the English-the Delaware, can be an incomplete and often incorrect picture, and archaeology divided into two linguistic subgroups, the Unami and Munsee. can only deduce from what it excavates. It is to the Lenapt: The Unami had an influence on the New York Harbor area themselves that we must tum to gain a more whole notion of south to today 's states of Delaware and Maryland. Munsee what life on the Hudson was like before Europeans arrived. was spoken on both banks of the lower and mid-Hudson River The Lenape never developed a written language; the rich Valley. The Mahicans, a closely-related Lenape-type people, and formalized oral tradition served as the keeper of the heart lived throughout the lower and middle Hudson Valley north and history of the people. Of course, an oral tradition requires into the Champlain Valley. On both banks of the Hudson from living people to continue the lineage of historic stories intact. Manhattan upriver to Kingston and beyond , the valley was Unfortunately, the Len ape were among the first native peoples of "Turtle Island" (the Nainhabited by many Lenape peoples, politically autonotive designation for North mous and going under various America) to come into contribal names. tact with Europeans. By the These people called the time Europeans thought to lower Hudson River Shatchronicle the Lenape culture, disease and warfare had retemuc and the mid-Hudson stretch Mahicanituk. We no duced the population from a longer know what Shattemuc conservatively estimated means, but speakers of the lan24,000 people to less than guage translate Mahicanituk 3,000 refugees by 1700. Other as "Tidal River of the Mahican European introductions and practices such as iron tools, People." The glacial gorge of the Hudson riverbed lies betradecloth, forest clearing, low sea level for 152 miles, so and Christianity changed the that the Hudson River is actunative lifestyle forever. ally an estuary where tides are Traditionally, the Lenape felt all the way inland to the Touching Leaves offering tobacco and cedar to purify the ceremonial lived according to the seacity of Troy near Albany, New ground at a traditional name-giving ceremony in New York State . sonal cycles of weather, flora, York State 's capital. Brackish Behind her stands a bark wigwam . and fauna which revolved around a complementary seawater reaches upstream for less than half this length, due to the Hudson's considerable sonal calendar of spiritual and social events. In spring, family freshwater flow. The Hudson River Valley contains three groups traveled inland to their favorite sugarbush for maple distinct ecosystems-salt water, freshwater and forest-which sugaring, laying in the year's supply of sugar with the Maple together provide rich and varied resources for food, shelter, Sugar Thanksgiving. When the shadbush bloomed in the clothing, and tools. sugarbush, it was time to return to the Hudson River to net the The Hudson is incredibly rich in archaeological resources. shad running upriver to spawn. Then on to the family's garden Contractors can rarely break ground upon the Hudson's banks territory, often in villages on the Hudson shore, where Spring at any point without uncovering the artifacts of ancient cul- Football, a game played with an oval deer skin stuffed with tures . Stone hammers, knives, axes, projectile points, scrapers, deer hair, was played between men and women to ensure a gouges, adzes, drills, pendants, game pieces, awls, mullers, bountiful harvest. The women planted many different varietarrow-straighteners, net sinkers, and ceramic vessel and pipe ies of seeds of the Three Sisters--com, beans and squashshards are only a few of the legion remains uncovered. Perhaps along with sunflowers and tobacco. In summer, the Doll Dance for children's health and the most impressive are the enormous middens or garbage piles of cast-off oyster and clam shells. Throughout the region have Otter Dance were held. In the Strawberry Moon , the family been found villages, forts, rock shelters, cemeteries, mounds , visited its favorite strawberry patch. Throughout the summer, stockades, shell heaps , fishing weirs , and early and late relics the people searched for wild stems, leaves, roots, berries, and nuts . Each week brought a different wild plant into its harvest of stone and bone tools and pottery. Some of the richest archaeological sites are found at the time. Medicinals were gathered and stored. August was the Green Com Time when the gardens began mouths of tributaries, such as Croton Point at the mouth of the Croton River. Nearly every tributary mouth, river island, and to be harvested and the Com Mother was celebrated with promontory has revealed extensive artifacts, as has the thankfulness. Perhaps it was the Green Com Dance that Dutch confluence of major inland streams. There were also rock skipper Lieutenant Cowenhoven saw in 1663 on the west bank shelter sites located in the hills further inland, and tales abound of the Hudson just north of Newburgh Bay: Indians dancing by SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991
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