Hudson, Greenport, Stockport and all of Columbia County, New York was Mohican territory. They also dominated the territory spreading west to Windham, north almost to Lake Champlain, towards Stockbridge Massachusetts, and south almost to Manhattan. Their stories, and some of the local historians chronicling them, are almost lost to time. Their stories are still worth telling.
Mohicans should also still be remembered for their contributions to our history during the period of the American Revolution; they were honored previously by George Washington as Friends of our Fathers. Mohicans served in George Washington' s Continental Army in battles that were not theirs.
The stories and history of the Mohicans has never thoroughly been passed down to people living in Columbia County, both past and present. Pilgrims and our European ancestors weren't the first here as people often forget.
Generations of people have lost their link to the past along with their region's history. The Mohican language is also extinct; as with any language, there are a certain number of people needed to still be speaking it in order to pass it onwards. Apparently, they had no written language surviving, although symbols such as turtles and chevrons have been found on artifacts.
Mohicans were an ancient and powerful race of people; their tools show fine levels of craftsmanship for that time period. The Delawares and the Lenni Lenape tribe from the west near present-day New Paltz are believed to be who the Mohicans are descended from. The Delawares claim to be the breeding stock from which most eastern Algonquin tribes, including the Mohicans, sprang from. By 1609, the 1000 or more Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley commanded respect; their main villages and chief occupied the Hudson River' s eastern banks and islands. In the Fall of 1609, a Mohican walked out from one of the main villages and saw a strange sight on the river. Thinking it was some sort of great fish, he ran back to the village to tell the others. Returning to the scene with two more Mohicans, they encountered the coming of Henry Hudson and his crew aboard the Half Moon.
Within twenty years of the time of Henry Hudson's ship entering possibly at Hudson or Stockport, their numbers had started to decline. Whether it was in part or in whole due to warring with neighboring Mohawks or the coming of the Dutch, their stronghold on the region would soon not last. When Henry Hudson and subsequent Dutch visitors arrived somewhat later, Mohicans were extremely hospitable to the outsiders. Hosting the newcomers, Mohicans readily showed Henry Hudson and his crew the Mohican way of life, their tools, their cooking and hunting techniques, along with their food supplies. Meals made by them for the visitors included wild game and the meat of a dog. We know also from journals kept at that time, that Henry Hudson and his crew entertained Mohicans aboard their ship; a gesture involving remarkable trust on both sides. Through the 1500s, European sea captains along the East Coast began collecting natives to take home as slaves; lower Hudson Valley Wappingers were hostile to Hudson for this reason.
Vastrick Island, later called Ten Pounds and then Roger' s Island, was named for Garret Vastrick, a merchant of New Netherlands and a friend of then Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Wishing to wipe out all Mohawks remaining, Mohicans landed on the island late night. What appeared to be Mohawks sleeping by their fires, was actually logs wrapped in blankets and a disappointment to Mohicans wishing to use their tomahawks to wipe them out. More importantly, Mohicans were now surrounded by Mohawks who fired shots from the woods with guns from the Dutch that Mohicans did not know they had been provided with. The few surviving Mohicans were marched as slaves the next morning by victorious Mohawks. Some Mohicans were burned at the stake. Some Mohican surviving families had previously started to retreat over the mountains into Massachusetts.
Around 1736, the Mohicans left Claverack and New York for Stockbridge, Massachussetts then settled in Wisconsin where today they exist as Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Tribe. They currently maintain a connection to their homeland and now have opened the historic preservation office located in Troy. Bonney Hartley is the tribal member sent to the Northeast now representing Mohicans; she and my friend Stephen Kent Comer are enrolled tribal members.
Comer noted, "I can say that when I came to this area thirty years ago, I was amazed to find virtually nothing about my people in their native land. It was as though we were a ghost people. "
Donald Shriver, president emeritus of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and Stephen Kent Comer, added a historical marker alongside the already-existing History of Columbia County marker at the northernmost overlook of the Taconic Parkway. The original marker tells of Hudson' s arrival in 1609 with no mention of the Mohicans. After years of fundraising and work with a variety of state agencies, and with the help of St. Peters Presbyterian Church in Spencertown, New York the men decided it was necessary to commemorate the Mohicans who had greeted Hudson and his crew.
Leaving the City of Hudson on State Route 23B, turning right just past the Old Tollhouse, is Spook Rock Road. The road was originally a Mohican trail. Certain seasons of the year had the Mohicans living and hunting in the Windham, Greene County region, while the rest of the year they resided here in Columbia County.
As professor at the University of Rochestor and member of the New York State Archeological Association, Ken Mynter completed an excavation of an Indian shelter in Claverack yielding evidence that the site was used 5,000 years ago. Carbon tests proved that cooking fires were used there as far back as 3,000 B.C. with remnants of meals eaten there; mussel shells and animal bones were found. In 1984 while writing for the Independent newspaper, he wrote: Indians were living here in this county before the building of the pyramids while our own ancestors were living in the New Stone Age in Europe. It is a staggering thought to have sink in.
After spending thousands of years in a vast valley with no one else but their own, it is remarkable that the Mohicans let us in...
This Thanksgiving, as you recall stories from your childhood about the Pilgrims and our nation's first Thanksgiving, consider and give pause to think about the Mohicans and what our region's Native Americans were doing at that time.
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| Edward Moran 1898 painting of Sir Henry Hudson entering New York Bay on September 11, 1609 with Indian family watching from shore. Library of Congress Image. |
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Dart used before invention of bow and arrow; Late Archaic Period, appraised NYState Museum, Albany.
| 4,000 years old. Courtesy Lisa LaMonica. |
