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Iroquois

Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702

July 24, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Skohere and the Birth of New York's Western Frontier Volume IIThe Schoharie Valley is one of New York’s three great colonial valleys, its history closely connected to, but overshadowed by, the more famed Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. When the Palatines arrived there in 1712, the world they stepped into was a century in the making. Until now, this formative period of the valley’s history has never been fully told, nor has the true impact these rebellious German refugees had on New York’s western frontier. [Read more…] about Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Jacob Leisler, King William, King William’s War, Leisler rebellion, Military History, Mohawk, New England, New France, Palatines, Queen Ann, Queen Anne's War, Religious History, Schoharie County, Schoharie Creek, Schoharie River, Schoharie Valley

White Pines: Physically & Culturally Colossal

July 15, 2023 by Paul Hetzler 1 Comment

1a Twitchell White PineThe eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) isn’t really a crop-bearing tree, but it has borne priceless fruit for American democracy. Physically as well as culturally massive, there are many accounts from the early 1800s of white pines over 200 feet tall being harvested. One credible report pegs a white pine at 247 feet, and unverified accounts have claimed that 300-foot-tall leviathans were cut back then. [Read more…] about White Pines: Physically & Culturally Colossal

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Cayuga Nation, Cultural History, Forestry, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Paul Smith's College, Political History, Seneca Nation, trees, Tuscarora, White Pine, Women's Rights NHP, womens history

Paul Smith’s Students Create the Akwesasne Mohawk Mobile Cultural Center

May 24, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Akwesasne Mobile Cultural CenterPaul Smith’s College students have completed construction of the Akwesasne Mobile Cultural Center. This new cultural center is a result of a partnership between Paul Smith’s College and the Nia’s Little Library – a nonprofit that promotes literacy and preserve the Mohawk language. [Read more…] about Paul Smith’s Students Create the Akwesasne Mohawk Mobile Cultural Center

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History Tagged With: Akwesasne, Cultural History, Education, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Mohawk, Museums, Nia’s Little Library, Paul Smith's College

SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students

May 10, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

SUNY Albany's Indian Pond in 2015, renamed Parker Pond in 2023 (photo by Paul Miller of SUNY Albany)The New York State University at Albany’s University Council voted Friday, May 5th, to formally change the name of Indian Pond to Parker Pond, and Indian Pond Lane to Parker Pond Lane. The new names acknowledge and honor the contributions of the Parker family, of which three siblings — Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) — were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at UAlbany around 1850. [Read more…] about SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Education, Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Lewis Henry Morgan, Seneca Nation, SUNY Albany

Derogatory Place Names Removed From Several New York Locations

May 8, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_InteriorIn November of 2021 Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland formally established a process to review and replace (for federal use) derogatory names of the nation’s geographic features. In September of 2022 the Board on Geographic Names voted on the final replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features featuring the word “squaw,” including in New York State

A more recent vote completed that process for several populated place names in the American West.  The votes were steps required to remove a term from federal use that has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women. [Read more…] about Derogatory Place Names Removed From Several New York Locations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Department of the Interior, Geography, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois

Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State

March 22, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

“The Amazing Iroquois” and the Invention of the Empire StateFrom the Iroquois confederacy serving as a model for the US Constitution, to the connections between the matrilineal Iroquois and the woman suffrage movement, to the living legacy of the famous “Sky Walkers,” the steelworkers who built the Empire State Building and the George Washington Bridge, the Iroquois are viewed as an exceptional people who helped make the state’s history unique and forward-looking. [Read more…] about Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State

Filed Under: Arts, Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Cultural History, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Oxford University Press, Political History

The Mystery of Joseph Brant’s Watch

February 28, 2023 by Dave Waite 1 Comment

Evening journal (Wilmington, Del.), 1888-07-14, [p ] There was a story that had been passed down in the Minthorn family for generations. It told of how an ancestor had hidden her two infants under the roots of a tree to save them during the Revolutionary War attack on Cherry Valley, NY, in 1778. It was said that in her zeal to quiet her children, the youngsters were rendered unconscious, being revived only after the attackers had departed.

While this story is most likely fiction, there is some truth mixed in. [Read more…] about The Mystery of Joseph Brant’s Watch

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Canada, Cherry Valley, Genealogy, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Jefferson County, Jefferson County Historical Society, Joseph Brant, Loyalism, Mabee Farm Historic Site, Material Culture, Mohawk, Montgomery County, Ontario, Otsego County, Schoharie Valley, watertown, William Johnson

Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

February 9, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Cohoes Mastodon exhibit at the New York State Museum, Albany New York (photo courtesy Kenneth C. Zirkel)In 1866, NY State Geologist James Hall received a message from T.G. Younglove, an official at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, informing Hall that while conducting some excavations to expand the mill they uncovered a “great pothole” at the foot of Cohoes Falls where the Mohawk River begins to empty into the Hudson.

The “great pothole” contained a large jawbone “of some unknown beast,” much larger than that of an elephant. [Read more…] about Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Archaeology, Board of Regents, Cardiff Giant, Cohoes, Cooperstown, Farmers' Museum, Fossils, Geology, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Journalism, Mohawk River, Native American, nature, New York State Education Department, New York State Museum, Newspapers, Onondaga County, Otsego County, Paleontology, PT Barnum, Religious History, Science History, sculpture, Wildlife

The Two Alexander Macombs: A Slaveholder & A Duplicitous Negotiator

February 7, 2023 by Alan J. Singer 1 Comment

The Alexander Macomb House in New York City served as the executive mansion for President George Washington, February–August 1790Alexander Macomb, the elder, (1748–1831) was a fur trader, land and currency speculator, and slaveholder who supported the British during the American Revolution and provided the occupying British army with trade goods. [Read more…] about The Two Alexander Macombs: A Slaveholder & A Duplicitous Negotiator

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, New York City Tagged With: Adirondacks, Alexander Macomb, American Revolution, Andrew Jackson, Battle of Plattsburgh, Florida, Harlem River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Lake Ontario, Macomb’s Purchase, Manhattan, Military History, New York City, Slavery, St Lawrence County, St. Lawrence River, The Bronx, War of 1812

Pirates, Prostitution & The Livingston Family

January 15, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Robert R Livingston by Gilbert StuartFrom their early days on the North American continent, the Livingston family were a prominent sex-trade family. In a nutshell, they were landlords to brothel-operators from at least as early as the 1810s.

New York State Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who reluctantly joined the patriot side of the American Revolution in 1776. Chancellor Robert was one of many Livingstons who profited from the sex trade in the aftermath of the unrest. [Read more…] about Pirates, Prostitution & The Livingston Family

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abolition, American Revolution, Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Livingston Manor, piracy, prostitution, Robert Livingston, Slavery, Vice, W.W. Norton, William Kidd

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