Then and Now: Archeology at Fort Stanwix
Archeology Home  

11,500 Years of History

Native Americans, also called American Indians, lived in this area from about 10,000 B.C. Their history followed a long trajectory until about 1600 A.D. when Europeans arrived. This section will look at the history of Native Americans at the site.
FOST Home
Willett Center
Archeology
On This Spot
Living in Rome
Maps
A map of New York at the time that the glaciers were melting. Rome, New York, is located at the headwaters of the Mohawk River and Wood Creek. This is significant because it is the only land barrier to full-water transport between the Great Lakes and the Hudson River. This unique spot formed as the glaciers receded 10,000 years ago and glacial Lake Iroquois drained through the Mohawk Valley. The passage of hundreds of square miles of water through this valley created a natural passageway between east and west used for millennia afterwards.
As the waters of the postglacial lakes receded, people moved in. We know that North America was populated before 10,000 B.C., and there is some evidence that people were in the Americas even earlier, possibly as early as 25,000 B.C. The glaciers prevented people from coming to what is now Rome until about 10,000 B.C. We know very little about these early Native Americans except that they hunted large game animals and they lived in fairly small groups. This way of life was normal for that time period around the world.
The time period from 7000 B.C. to 1000 B.C archeologists called the Archaic period in what is now New York State. The number of people in groups began to grow. By the end of the Archaic period, the Native Americans began to build villages to live in. A projectile point found during the excavation.

 

A bark house as illustrated in a 19th century history of Oneida County.

 During the Woodland period, as archeologists call the time span from 1000 B.C. until 1600 A.D., villages were the normal place people lived. Pottery and agriculture were important parts of how people lived their day-to-day lives. Corn and squash were grown in fields, and wild rice was harvested from lakes, rivers, and marshes. In around 1350 A.D., beans were added to the crops grown around villages, creating the Three Sisters of corn, beans, and squash. Deer was one of the main animals hunted for meat, and its leather was used to make tailored clothing. During this period, Iroquois culture developed among the groups that lived in what we call New York State.
In the seventeenth century, the Oneida Nation of the Iroquois, or Hodenosaunee (People of the Long House), controlled the land where Rome, New York, now stands. The passage between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek was called the Great Carry because this was the place where boats had to be carried between the rivers. Except for this spot, the lands of the Iroquois could be reached by boat from east to west. A 1720 illustration of an Iroquois village.
In 1609, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain came to the land of the Iroquois with a group of Huron and Algonquin warriors. The Iroquois were enemies of the Hurons and Algonquins, so the French were brought in to aid in the fight against the Iroquois. This marked the beginning of European involvement in Native American affairs among the Iroquois.
In 1615, Champlain came as part of a raid to a village of the Onondaga Nation just west of the Oneidas. The French use of firearms and techniques of warfare were effective but the raid still failed due to the strength of the Iroquois fortification. The Iroquois warriors even asked the French to remain out of the battle before the attackers retreated and to not interfere in the war of the Iroquois against the Hurons and Algonquins. Champlain withdrew, but the Europeans were to remained involved with the Iroquois from then on. A drawing by French soldiers of their attack on an Onondaga village in 1615.

Postglacial map courtesy of Robert Allers

Champlain, Samuel de Algonquins, Hurons and Iroquois: Champlain Explores America 1603-1616. Dale McClure, editor. Brook House Press, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, 2000.

Forward to Colonization and the Iroquois

Back to On this Spot

Archeology On this spot Living in Rome Maps Home Fort Stanwix Hartgen