History, Natural History & the Arts
Within the past several years, at least three terrestrial pests have invaded the forests of the Lake George watershed. Among them: emerald ash borer, which was first detected in Warren County in 2020, along the Schroon River near Chestertown.
That discovery was the first indication that the invasive species might have established itself in the southern Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Emerald Ash Borer: A Threat to Trees, Mohawk Traditions
America’s first President George Washington owned 316 acres of land in today’s Town of Kirkland, Oneida County, NY, in partnership with New York State’s first Governor George Clinton.
The Oneida Indian Nation lived in what is now Oneida County, even after the area’s settlement by Europeans, which started in the 1600s. The French traveled through the area in the 1500s. [Read more…] about George Washington’s Lands in Oneida County
Human presence in the Adirondacks, including Warren County, dates back thousands of years. The rugged peaks, valleys, and lakes of the Adirondacks were the hunting grounds for several Native American people, notably the Mohicans, Mohawk, and the Abenaki.
The Haudenosaunee arrived in the region around 1,200 to 4,000 years ago. Both the Mohawk and Oneidas claimed the Adirondacks as part of their territory. [Read more…] about Some Early History of Glens Falls
In one of the largest private land return initiatives in what is now New York State, a forested 600-acre property is returning to Indigenous care.
With assistance and funding from The Nature Conservancy, the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center (6NICC) purchased the land from Paul Smith’s College for $1.1 million. [Read more…] about 600 Adirondack Acres Returning to Indigenous Stewardship
Where the Hoosic and Mohawk rivers meet the Hudson River was a major Indigenous crossroads. Three major native pathways came together there: 1) The Hoosic River offered the main route east to New England, over the Berkshires and into Massachusetts. 2) The Mohawk River guided the way west. 3) The east side of the Hudson Valley provided a pathway north to Lake Champlain and Canada.
These well-worn trails, on which colonists later built their roads, linked the waterways used by Indigenous hunters, traders, and families moving between settlements. Stone, minerals, and other natural material from as far west as Michigan have been found in this region, revealing a broad network of trade among Native people, long before Europeans arrived. [Read more…] about The Road North: From Native Networks to the Champlain Canal
Tyonajanegan, who Europeans called Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen or Two Kettles Together, was a mother of four who took up arms alongside her husband as their Oneida Nation chose to support the colonists in the American Revolution.
Almost nothing is known about her early life, although at least one family historian reports that she was “taken prisoner with her sister Katy from the Shawanoes, & remained with the Mohawks.”
However, she and her husband and his family had significant roles in early New York history. [Read more…] about Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
On March 27, 1756, the quiet snow-covered peace on the Oneida Carrying Place in what is now Rome, New York, was shattered with an attack on Fort Bull. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) had begun to invade the Mohawk Valley.
On the westerly side of the carry (now Rome) the small fort, garrisoned by 35 men of the British 51st Regiment of Foot, one of the two American Regiments raised in 1755, was over run and destroyed by a 346 man French-Canadian-Indian Force from Fort La Presentation (at modern day Ogdensburg, NY). The fort was destroyed in a violent explosion. [Read more…] about March, 1756: The Destruction of Fort Bull
During the Beaver Wars the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), supplied by Dutch weapons, decimated the Mohican along the Hudson River. A Mohican effort to regain control of land taken from them by the Mohawk left their strength so severely depleted that they refused to join their eastern Algonquin speaking allies in fighting King Philip’s War (1675-1676) — a war that marked the last major effort by the Native Americans of New England to drive out the English settlers.
Following that bloody conflict, defeated Indigenous refugees fled west from New England along the Hoosic River into the Province of New York. Edmund Andros, Governor of the Province, saw this exodus as an opportunity to thwart the territorial ambitions of Massachusetts. [Read more…] about The Schaghticoke Tree of Peace and Welfare
In April 1763, the American Indian War for Independence (1763-1766) — also called Pontiac’s Rebellion or Pontiac’s Uprising for the Ottawa Nation leader who organized a coalition against European colonial powers — started with the siege of Fort Detroit.
In July 1764, an English colonial force that included 500 Native fighters departed from Oswego for operations against Pontiac’s forces to the west. Attacks by Native forces spread east and south as a result of continued European colonists’ trespassing and settlement on Native lands. [Read more…] about Pontiac’s Uprising: The American Indian War for Independence
In attempts to maximize proximity to valuable trade with the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous nations, Europeans established outposts and forts farther and farther into the interior of Haudenosaunee territory and the Great Lakes.
The French followed the St. Lawrence River into the Great Lakes and discovered that the Oswego River provided a water route inland to the Oswego-Oneida-Mohawk Carry, a trail using the largest portage connecting the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. [Read more…] about Indigenous Transportation & Early Forts at Oswego
The New York Historical Society has digitized their Evert Wendell collection, including five account books in Dutch and English covering the period from 1695 to 1758 and one docket book (in English).
Evert Wendell (1681-1750) was a Dutch-descended Albany merchant, fur trader, and attorney, who conducted business with Native Americans in upstate New York and with colonists in Albany, Schenectady, New York City, and Boston. [Read more…] about Evert Wendell Account Books Reveal Life in 1695-1789
How much do we really know about the food systems and agricultural knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of North America?
In what ways were the Wampanoag people able to contribute to the “First Thanksgiving” harvest celebration—and what have we gotten wrong about their story? [Read more…] about Indigenous Agriculture and Native Foodways Science
The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous Peoples in the Adirondack Upland (Globe Pequot/North Country Books, 2025) challenges the widespread, long-standing belief that the Adirondacks of Northern New York were uninhabited before the arrival of European colonizers.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Through local indigenous traditions and supporting findings by natural science, authors David Fadden and Curt Stager expose, document, and honor the long human presence in the Adirondacks, helping not only to redefine what it means to be an Adirondacker, but also contributing to a more complete understanding of America itself. [Read more…] about The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous History
The first written record of oil in North America is believed to have been made at Seneca Oil Spring in Allegany County in 1627 when a French Jesuit missionary was led to spring by local Seneca people.
The Senecas prized the oil for medicinal proposes; the spring is located in what is now Cuba, NY. [Read more…] about New York State & The Origins of America’s Oil Industry
On this week’s Lake George Battlefield Moments podcast, Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance Trustees Bruce Venter and John DiNuzzo discuss plans for Visitor Center exhibits set to be unveiled in 2026. They also review some important special events planned for the coming months. [Read more…] about Lake George Battlefield Plans New Exhibits, Major Events
King George’s War and the Thirty-Year Peace:continues the contest for North America from the end of Queen Anne’s War in 1713, marking the beginning of the Thirty-Year Peace, through the start of King George’s War in 1744, to its conclusion with the signing of Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle four years later.
While there would be little fighting between the French, Spanish, and British colonies in North America during the Thirty-Year Peace — the Franco-Spanish conflict of 1719 being an exception — for the French and British it did not prove to be peaceful. [Read more…] about King George’s War and the Thirty-Year Peace
From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830 (University of Nebraska Press, 2013), is by William A. Starna, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.
This history of the Mahicans begins with the appearance of Europeans on the Hudson River in 1609 and ends with the removal of these Native peoples to Wisconsin in the 1830s. [Read more…] about William Starna’s History of the Mahican
Michael Leroy Oberg’s new book Professional Indian: The American Odyseey of Eleazer Williams (2015, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press) follows Eleazer Williams on his odyssey across the early American republic and through the shifting spheres of the Iroquois – Haudenosaunee in an era of dispossession.
Oberg describes Williams as a “professional Indian,” who cultivated many political interests and personas in order to survive during a time of shrinking options for native peoples. [Read more…] about Eleazer Williams: Professional Indian
The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American War for Independence, but it did not bring peace to North America. After 1783, warfare and violence continued between Americans and Native Americans.
So how did the early United States attempt to create peace for its new nation? [Read more…] about The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794
My grandfather Dwight James Baum (DJB) is Little Falls, Herkimer County, NY’s most-famous architect and one of its most-famous sons. While I may be partial to that view, it’s shared by many experts.
In the 2008 reissue of The Work of Dwight James Baum, edited by William Morrison in 1927, Ron McCarty, Curator and Keeper of Ca’ d’Zan (a Mediterranean revival residence on Sarasota Bay in Florida designed by DJB) noted that “in 1923, the Architectural League of New York awarded the Gold Medal to Dwight James Baum. Aged 37 and practicing independently for a mere eight years, Baum was the youngest architect ever to receive the coveted honor. [Read more…] about Dwight James Baum: The World’s Most Famous Architect from Little Falls
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