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.