Aboriginal monuments of the state of New-York : comprising the results of original surveys and explorations with an illustrative appendix / by E. G. Squier.

  • Ephraim George Squier
Date:
[1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aboriginal monuments of the state of New-York : comprising the results of original surveys and explorations with an illustrative appendix / by E. G. Squier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. The Indian tribes found in possession of the country now embraced within the limits of New England and the Middle States have left few monuments to attest their former presence. The fragile structures which they erected for protection and defence have long ago crumbled to the earth ; and the sites of their ancient towns and villages are indicated only by the ashes of their long-extinguished fires, and by the few rude relics which the plough of the invader exposes to his curious gaze. Their cemeteries, marked in very rare instances by enduring monuments, are now undistinguishable, except where the hand of modern improvement en¬ croaches upon the sanctity of the grave. The forest-trees, upon the smooth bark of which the Indian hunter commemorated his exploits in war, or success in the chase—the first rude efforts towards a written language—have withered in the lapse of time, or fallen beneath the inexorable axe. The rock upon which the same primitive historian laboriously wrought out his rude, but to him significant picture, alone resists the corrosion of years. Perhaps no people equally numerous have passed away without leaving more decided memorials of their former exist¬ ence. Excepting the significant names of their sonorous language, which still attach to our mountains, lakes, and streams, little remains to recall the memory of the departed race. But notwithstanding the almost entire absence of monuments of art clearly refer¬ able to the Indian tribes discovered in the actual possession of the region above indicated, it has long been known that many evidences of ancient labor and skill are to be found in the western parts of New York and Pennsylvania, upon the upper tributaries of the Ohio, and along the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario. Here we find a series of ancient earth-works, entrenched hills, and occasional mounds, or tumuli, concerning which history is mute, and the origin of which has been regarded as involved in impenetrable mystery. These remains became a
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