By HOWARD BLUE
DID YOU EVER WONDER how far back the Native Americans who once lived in Columbia County lived here? Well thanks to an analysis of a collection of Mohican artifacts, there are some strong clues. First, some background information:
A combination of forces that included conflicts with the powerful Mohawks and “disruptions” by European settlers drove out the Mohicans who lived in and around the Copake area several centuries ago. But four Copake locations associated with the Mohicans are known. One, curiously described by an archaeologist as a “resort,” is near a spring on “Mount Tom” likely Tom’s Hill, right outside the hamlet’s center. A second one is a prehistoric camping site on Copake Lake’s north shore. And the third is Robinson Pond where in the mid-19th century Paul and Phebe Pry, a Mohican couple, lived. The fourth place is where, in about 2007, an archaeological company that prefers to go unnamed did a series of digs. Thanks to those digs, there is evidence from artifacts found there that Native Americans, Mohicans, were in the Copake area at least as far back as 6,000 years ago.
The archaeological company was hired by a landowner who in the end did not pay his bill. So, after the artifacts were dug up, they sat for some years in the company’s office. To minimize relic hunters accessing the dig site, I’m not identifying it.
About seven or eight years ago, before I became town historian, I began trying to obtain the collection for the town. Then, a few years after I was appointed, I asked a representative of the dig site’s current landowner for help. According to the company, it is the landowners who are entitled to such collections. At my request, the representative wrote to the archaeology company. In response, the company turned over the collection to me for the town.
Thus far, two archaeologists from the New York State Museum, Susan Winchell Sweeney and Jonathan Lothrop, have consulted about the collection. Dr. Lothrop, is a specialist in relation to this kind of collection.
One by one, Dr. Lothrop examined the items in the collection whose items fall into at least five categories:
1. Non-cultural rocks with no archaeological value that initially were suspected of having some.
2. Flakes that were a byproduct of work that Native Americans did in creating stone tools.
3. FCRs: Fire cracked rocks, rocks which became cracked from fires, possibly ancient hearths.
4. Tools. One rock with marks on either end of it was determined to be a hammer stone used in flintknapping. Another small item with a very sharp edge that could not have appeared in nature, was a scraper used for cleaning animal hides. A third artifact is a small drill.
5. Projectile points, meaning either darts or perhaps arrowheads. Darts appear to have been used before the invention of the bow and arrow. But it is not known for sure when that invention occurred.
New York State archaeologists categorize these points by using a chart (see below) exhibiting the shapes of prototypes. Each prototype is named for the region where it was found. In addition, there are estimates of the age of the projectile points. Because such artifacts are made of stone, they cannot be carbon dated. But organic material found next to them has been carbon dated and thus yielded the artifacts’ approximate ages.
As one can see from the chart, the farther to the left a projectile point prototype is, the older it is.
Many of the projector points were deemed to be Normanskill* – meaning approximately 4500-4000 years old.
At least one is probably a Genesee Point (3,500 years old), and another is likely Otter Creek (6,500-6,000 years old). One was either Squibnocket point (est. 5,000 years old) or Levanna (6,500-6,000 years old)
By the way, this news about the Mohican artifacts is more significant than might at first glance seem apparent. Word about the collection reached the Stockbridge-Muncee reservation in Wisconsin, and a tribal representative contacted me. One concern was whether the collection might have included any sort of sacred objects. It did not. But descendants of genocide victims treasure anything left from their ancestors. The notion might be summed up by the statement, “See, we were here. Despite efforts to erase us, we have proof that our ancestors existed. And we have survived.”
*Normanskill, Genesee, etc. are terms referring to the locations where prototype projectile points were found.
Howard Blue publishes the Copake History Facebook page and writes a monthly column for the Copake Connection, the town’s monthly newsletter. Also, with artist Nick Fritsch, Blue created the Permanent Copake History Exhibit in Copake Town Hall.