IV. NOTES ON THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY
By Professor George H. Perkins, Ph.D.
State Geologist of Vermont
It is undoubted that the Champlain valley at the time when the first Europeans entered the region was occupied by two great Indian peoples, the Confederacy of the Six Nations and the Algonkins or Abnaki. To the Six Nations the name Iroquois was generally given by the French explorers. They held full sway over the New York side of the Champlain valley, but the occupancy of the eastern, or Vermont, side is less certain. There can be no question that this side of the valley was possessed by the Algonkins for the greater part of the time, but there are several centuries when it is not easy to determine certainly the precise relations of these two peoples. Most of what became New England and the Atlantic border and a vast territory in Canada was always, so far as can be now discovered, occupied by the Algonkins who also reached far westward and southward through the Mississippi valley. The Iroquois occupied a comparatively small area about lakes Erie and Ontario and eastward along the St. Lawrence, including the whole of what is now New York, as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and a long, narrow strip of Canada north of New York.
They also occupied territory in the south, west of the Carolinas. How long or how completely the Iroquois possessed the Vermont side of the Champlain valley we may never know, but it appears to be pretty certain that they did for a time, and probably several times, dispossess the usual owners and hold as their own the entire shore of Champlain. It appears from various records that sometime about 1540 the Iroquois were in control of both sides of the lake and of the Vermont as well as the New York shores. It also appears that these people held the region for a century when they withdrew. Why they retired to the western side is not plain. Considering their warlike disposition and reputation and the very great fear in which they were held by the Algonkins it is impossible to believe that these latter drove them back across the lake, and yet why they should have voluntarily left their eastern possessions one cannot readily explain.
In 1640 Father Ducreux made a map of the region and on this map Lake Champlain is made the western boundary of the Algonkin territory, so that by this time the ownership had again changed.
In 1690, as is well known, the Algonkins and French destroyed Schenectady and, though their force was very small, they appear to have passed without any difficulty through the Champlain valley, and had it been occupied by Mohawks or any Iroquois tribe this could not have been possible.
At different times for many years various Vermont legislatures were beset by claims which the Caughnawaga Indians persistently entered. These claims were for remuneration for land taken by the white men from their ancestors and which they declared were formerly the property of their tribe.
The territory which the Caughnawagas claimed was finally defined by them as bounded by Lake Champlain on the west and on the east by the mountain ranges which divide the waters running into Lake Champlain from the Missisquoi, Lamoille and Winooski rivers from those which run into the Connecticut, together with so much of the land drained by Otter creek as would be embraced by a line drawn from Ticonderoga to the sources of the Winooski.
So far as can be ascertained by examination of documents, the validity or invalidity of this claim was neither denied nor allowed, but the claim was never in any way granted. As intimated, it was repeatedly advanced at different sessions of the General Assembly until finally abandoned in 1874. From the persistency with which the Indians brought forward their claim it seems probable that whether it had any substantial basis or not, they really believed that it had.
In a very full and interesting discussion of this question, Mr. D. P. Thompson in an Appendix to the History of Montpelier, Vt., writes as follows: “In the published journal of the expedition of Champlain when in the summer of 1609 he discovered the lake that bears his name we have full and direct evidence that the Iroquois were in possession of just about the same tract of territory in Vermont as that to which their descendants have latterly been laying claim as a part of their original domain.”
Champlain also found that the Algonkins were at war with the Iroquois and, as this author suggests, this war may very likely have grown out of the encroachment of the Iroquois upon this territory which formerly had belonged to the Algonkins. Moreover, Champlain states in his narrative that when he asked his companions who lived on the east shores of the lake through which they were passing they told him that they were Iroquois. It also appears to be true that the early French explorers called Lake Champlain the Lake or Sea of the Iroquois. However, while the Algonkins admitted at the time of Champlain’s visit that the Iroquois held the Champlain valley on both sides, they asserted that it originally belonged to them, as it was occupied by their forefathers. The truth, so far as it can be ascertained, appears to be that the first inhabitants of the western side of the Champlain valley were Iroquois, and those of the eastern side were Algonkins; that at some time before 1540 the Iroquois crossed the lake and drove out the people then living on the eastern side, and for many, perhaps a hundred, years, themselves occupied that territory. In or about 1640, for reasons not discoverable, they left the eastern shores and all the territory now included in Vermont and no further trace of them appears in that region. How long the Champlain valley was occupied by these two peoples can never be known, or whether at any early time some other and different people roamed over the region. All that we do know or can know is that at the coming of the white men, and for at least several centuries before, these and only these tribes were here.
Turning now to a consideration of some of the evidence of former occupation which these peoples have left we find a great variety of implements and weapons of stone and a smaller number of copper and iron. Household utensils, simple and few as were the needs of people, who were in the stone age of civilization, are also found made of stone, earthenware and bone. A detailed enumeration of these, though of great interest to the archæologist would be tedious to the general reader. For this reason only a general account of these objects will be given.
From what has been written above it will be obvious that practically all of the objects found on the New York side of the valley are of Iroquois origin, but of those found in Vermont we may be sure that many are Algonkin. It is also sure that mingled with these there must be many of Iroquoian origin. When, however, we attempt to decide which of the implements or other objects are Algonkian and which Iroquoian we undertake a very difficult task. Some of the pottery and some of the stone objects are plainly of Iroquois manufacture and others are Algonkian, but most of our specimens are not to be classified. The Iroquois were superior in culture to other tribes and their handiwork is finer as a whole, but after all the quality of the work does not, as a rule, at all suffice to distinguish between their implements and others. Quite extensive collections have been made on both sides of the lake, and when these are compared very great similarity is at once observed. And yet there are some differences though, as has been indicated, not enough to differentiate one group from the other. It is noticeable that in any considerable collection of objects of Indian manufacture from the Champlain valley, there are many of exceedingly fine workmanship. No better specimens of their kind are to be found anywhere than the best of our Champlain valley specimens. Probably because of the rocky and, at times inaccessible, character of the western shore, and the more level and inhabitable nature of the Vermont shores, Indian relics of all sorts have been found in much greater abundance on the eastern than on the western side of the lake.
Much of the New York shore is rugged and affords no good camping ground or village sites, while the Vermont shores are mostly level, or nearly so, and offer abundant invitation to wandering tribes to remain. And yet, as Champlain informs the reader, there were in his day no permanent villages because of hostilities. The whole Champlain valley, or at any rate that part of it which adjoins the lake, was unsafe territory to the long-staying camper, and still more to those who would establish a village. War or hunting parties might traverse its forests, but none might safely tarry long.
As every collector of Indian relics well knows, it is about the camp, or better still, village sites that most abundant specimens occur, and as these are very few in the immediate vicinity of the lake so the number of objects found is comparatively small as compared to such localities as the Ohio or Mississippi region. Still some thousands of specimens have been collected along the shores of Lake Champlain and in their immediate neighborhood. As everywhere, the spear and arrow points, and similarly shaped knives, are by far the most abundant of all objects that have been found. These chipped points are almost always made from hard, often quartzose rock, and are of many forms and various degrees of excellence. By far the greater number are of a gray quartzite which is abundant in ledges in the region. The most common form on both sides of the lake is the simple triangle. This shape occurs of many sizes from little points a half inch long to those that are four or five inches long. They may be narrow or broad, usually without haft or barb, though these may be present in some of the less common specimens. While none are as large as the larger flaked implements of the west, some are several inches long, a few of the very largest being seven or eight. Some few of the points are as finely proportioned and elegantly made as can be found anywhere, though as a rule the flaked objects are less attractive than those from the west. This is partly due to the color and texture of the material, for the quartzites, etc., of the east are much less prettily colored than those which are found in the west or middle west. Finely barbed and stemmed points and knives are less abundant than the simpler forms, but many specimens occur and some are very finely made.
Besides these points other chipped or flaked objects are found, such as scrapers and drills. A form of point or, more probably, knife is found more commonly, I think, in the Champlain valley than elsewhere, though not peculiar to this region. These are of similar form to the better hafted and stemmed, chipped points, but they are of red or purple slate and were ground at least as they were completed, though they may have been first shaped by chipping, as some of them undoubtedly were. Some of these are strikingly like the modern Eskimo knife. Dr. Beauchamp has figured some of these slate knives in Bulletin 18, New York State Museum, and says as to their distribution: “In some parts of Canada they are about as common as in New York, being most abundant on both sides of Lake Ontario. They have not been reported east of Lake Champlain, except in its immediate vicinity, with the exception of one in Maine, nor do they reach more than half way southward to the Pennsylvania line.”
Perhaps that class of implements known as gouges is more common in the Champlain valley than elsewhere. These objects are of various proportions, some being long and slender, others short and wide, but whatever the shape, there is always the U-shaped groove which gives the name. This groove may extend only a short distance from the cutting edge as in the ordinary carpenter’s gouge, or it may go from end to end. The gouges are usually fashioned from moderately soft stone though some are of that which is very hard. They are generally well finished and some are so regular in form and so beautifully smoothed and polished that they are not surpassed by any specimens that we have. As a rule they are of medium size, six or eight inches long, but most elegantly finished specimens are in our museums that are fourteen to twenty inches long.
What are called celts or hand axes are more numerous and, as a class, somewhat ruder than the gouges, though some of them are as finely made as possible.
Like the gouges the celts were rubbed and ground into shape, except in very rare cases, when a very hard stone was shaped by flaking. They are generally not more than four or five inches long, though some have been found that are twice this size. The material is usually some sort of very hard stone.
Of ruder sort than other implements are the numerous hammers. Often these are merely water smoothed river or beach pebbles upon which no work at all has been expended, and the only proof of human usage is seen in the battered ends. More rarely the hammer has been worked over its whole surface. Of course hammers or other implements used for pounding would not ordinarily be carried on long journeys and consequently would not be likely to be found far from a somewhat permanent camp. Hence, although very abundant in a few localities, these objects are not widely distributed. And the same is true of the boiling stones, which are of the same sort as the hammer stones, the difference being that the latter bear the bruises caused by their use, while the pebbles which were heated and thrown into the earthenware pots to heat the water show evidence of being heated, but no abrasion.
The hammer stone when long and more or less slender becomes a pestle. Pestles are not common though in all a considerable number have been found in the Champlain valley. Some of these are only five or six inches long, and from this size they may be found of various lengths and weights to those over two feet long and weighing nearly thirty pounds. Some of these large pestles are finely shaped and of hard stone, so that great labor must have been expended in their making.
Several so-called pestles have been found in the region we are considering which are especially interesting because they are not only well shaped, but at one end they are carved to resemble the head of some animal. These are long and slender and should probably be regarded as clubs rather than pestles.
Without some sort of mortar the pestle would be of little use, and where one is found the other may be expected. Yet it is noticeable that mortars are very uncommon in this region. Some very excellent examples have been found, but more often little labor was expended upon the mortars beyond that necessary to hollow out the cavity. This cavity was in some cases hollowed on one side only, but often there was made a hollow on each side. These were usually circular and several inches deep, but in some of the largest mortars the hollowed portion is oval and more or less irregular. Naturally the mortars would be of considerable weight, from ten to fifty pounds.
The most common axe or hatchet was undoubtedly the celt or hand axe, already mentioned, but for heavier work larger axes were needed, and these are found, though not in large numbers. These larger axes may be six, eight or ten inches long and weigh several pounds, though we have none as large as many which have been found in the west and south. Some are very rude, others very carefully shaped and well finished. All have a groove around them by which a handle could be more firmly attached. These large grooved axes seem to us very clumsy and inefficient tools, but Champlain in his account of making a camp for the night on one of the large islands in the lake, says that his Indian companions cut down large trees with these “meschantes haches,” so that they were certainly much more useful than they appear to us to be.
There is a class of objects which seem to be more or less problematical. They are of very different shape, but always quite unlike objects designed for use as implements; always well and often very finely made and finished and of handsome material. These occur on both sides of the lake and form the chief treasures of collections. They are some of them suitable for ornament or for ceremonial purposes, but some do not appear designed for any known use. Nevertheless they are fashioned with such care and are so attractive in themselves that it is not possible to regard them as unimportant to those who made them. By different writers they have been called as they are of one form or another—ceremonial stones, banner stones, gorgets, etc. And it is more than probable that some were used as indicated by these names, but some of them are quite puzzling. The flat pieces of slate or other stone which are included among the specimens mentioned are usually drilled once or twice and were apparently attached to the clothing or hung about the neck as ornaments. Others, the so-called banner stones, are thicker, of harder material, semi-lunar or more or less crescent shape and have a large hole bored through the middle. It is possible, but not certain, that these were in some way badges of office. A very few of the so-called birdshead stones have also been found.
The discoidal stones, found especially in the south, are very rare in the Champlain valley. A few rather rough specimens have been found, but I have seen only one really fine specimen and this is small, about two and a half inches in diameter, of white quartz and very finely made.
Stone and earthenware pipes, some of them of very interesting form and finely polished are not numerous, but a goodly number have been found. The earthenware pipes are of various shape, a few tubular, more with bowl and stem, much like the modern pipe. The stone pipes are very variable in form, no two being alike, but as elsewhere, finely finished. Yet the pipes of the Champlain valley are much less elaborate than those from the mounds or other localities, and none of the earthenware specimens are effigies, or with head-shaped bowls, such as are found in New York west of the Adirondacks.
A very interesting form of pipe has been found in Swanton, on the Vermont side of the lake. A dozen or more of these have been obtained. They are simply straight tubes of stone from seven to twelve inches long and about an inch in diameter. They very closely resemble the tubular pipes of the Pacific coast and South America.
It is noticeable that the pipes of the Champlain valley rarely imitate any human or animal form. I know of only one which resembles an animal and two or three which bear on the bowl the human face.
Of earthenware or pottery a very great variety has been found. In this more than in any of the stone objects we are able at least partially to separate the Algonkian from the Iroquoian. The earthenware of the Champlain valley is sometimes almost without decoration, but by far the greater portion was ornamented at least about the rim and usually over much of the upper portion and sometimes even inside the upper part for one or two inches below the rim. No animal or human form is found in any specimen. The form is always globular below, the rim being contracted and variously shaped. In some cases the rim is quadrangular or five or six sided, although as stated, the lower part is always globular. Whole jars are, as is to be expected, very rare, but three fine specimens from Vermont are in the University Museum and one was in the fine collection of Dr. D. S. Kellogg of Plattsburgh, which was found near that place.[3] Large fragments, in some instances almost enough to reconstruct a whole jar, have been found on both sides of the valley. For the most part the pottery of the region is in fragments from the size of one’s hand to mere bits not larger than a pea. These fragments have been found in very great quantity. A short distance north of Plattsburgh near what is locally called “The Creek,” there were evidently many jars made, for some years ago the sand blown off revealed the old fireplaces where the pots were burned and an immense number of fragments were picked up. The decoration is in all cases indented, none in relief. It consists of all sorts of figures, crescents, key-shaped figures, circles, dots, triangles, squares, zigzags, etc., and groups of lines, arranged in every conceivable fashion, all stamped or drawn on the clay when it was soft. Some of the patterns are really very attractive and done with no little skill. Only by the aid of plates can any adequate idea of the variety and elegance of these designs or of the earthenware as a whole be given.
In quality the Champlain valley pottery varies as in every other respect. Some of it is of the finest paste and carefully burned; some is of very coarse material and more carelessly burned. Over the surface of most specimens after the piece was shaped and perhaps partly dried, a thin, smooth paste was added which covered the ruder mass of which the jar was mainly composed. As to the size of most of the jars it is only possible to give an approximate measure because of their fragmentary condition, but, with those that are entire and the larger fragments as guides, it may be said that they varied from those holding a pint to those holding ten quarts. As to what may be called the nationality of the pottery, it may be noticed that while there is much resemblance there are important differences. The entire jars and the finest of the fragments are to be regarded as made by Iroquois, while the simpler forms, especially those found on the eastern side of the valley are Algonkian. While the work of the Iroquois is superior to that of the Algonkins, yet when it is remembered that all of the pottery was made entirely by hand, the regularity of form and general excellence are remarkable.
Soapstone dishes, such as are common in some parts of New England, are also found here, but they are very infrequent and always badly broken. Soapstone is not uncommon on the Vermont side of the valley, but the ancient residents seem to have preferred to use pots of earthenware.
Bone was probably used by the aborigines to a much greater extent than now appears, for this material was used to so great an extent by other tribes and is so readily fashioned into certain classes of implements and was always at hand that it would surely have been a common material for many of the smaller implements, such as awls, needles, points for marking pottery, fishing spears and the like.
Until within a few years only a very few bone objects of any sort had been found, but recently quite a number of various sorts have been found on the east shore of the lake and a few on the west. Some of these are like the many-barbed spear points of the Eskimo, but most are the ordinary awls, blunt points, etc. These latter were probably used mainly for drawing the lines and figures on the unbaked pottery. Canine teeth of the bear were carefully and evidently with no little labor cut or ground until half was removed and the remaining half brought to a sharp edge. As would be expected, objects of shell are uncommon and all that have been found are marine and from southern species. The little marginella conoidalis of the Carolina coast was used whole, evidently as beads, and the columella of the ordinary conch was cut into large beads an inch or more long and nearly as much in diameter. Like the beads made from the marginella these were perforated longitudinally and the surface ground smooth. These shell beads are interesting because they are proof of traffic between the northern and southern tribes. Bits of coral several inches long, the surface smoothed, have been found and furnish added evidence of trade with other tribes, as none of these materials can be obtained from northern waters.
Native copper is not found nearer the Champlain valley than Lake Superior, and here again we find proof of traffic with distant tribes, for copper implements and ornaments of different sorts have been found in several localities on both sides of the lake. Spear points, knives, celts, gouges made from copper, beaten into shape, have been found, and one large specimen weighing thirty-eight ounces, a celt eight inches long, was evidently cast in a mould. This was found a few years ago at the mouth of Otter creek, on the Vermont shore.
Besides those objects, which were for use as tools, there are copper bars, which were probably ornaments, and small beads made by beating the metal into sheets and rolling pieces of the thin copper into cylinders. We cannot know much as to the age of the objects thus far mentioned. It is certain that their use reaches back centuries before the coming of the white men, but how far into the remote past of this country none may say. When we find anything made from iron, however, there is no difficulty in assigning it an age, since the French adventurers came to the American wilderness and bartered their hatchets and other articles of iron for that which they needed from the savages. Queer shaped axes or tomahawks, pipes, etc., are now and then found always much rusted, but always of interest.
In the preceding pages there has not been any attempt to give more than a summary of what has been found during the past fifty or seventy-five years in the Champlain valley, which illustrates somewhat the life and handicraft of those to whom the region belonged before it was taken from them by the incoming Europeans.
Those who may care to pursue the subject further are referred to Dr. Beauchamp’s writings in Bulletins 16, 22, 50, 89 of the New York State Museum and to articles by the writer of this paper in the American Anthropologist, Vol. 11, pp. 607-623, plates XXIX-XXXVII; Vol. 13, pp. 239-249, plates XII-XVII; Vol. 14, pp. 72-80, plates I-V, also Seventh Report Vermont State Geologist, pp. 55-73, plates V-XVIII.