HIST 3480: The History of NYC“New York City” before

the Europeans

Simulated image of Manhattan in 1609 with current outline imposed on it from the Mannahatta project

“New York City” before the Europeans

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NYC’s Glacial Past• The Laurentide ice sheet advanced and retreated over a period of 60,000 years, reaching its maximum extent about 22,000 years ago, but started retreating with a climate change roughly 17,000 years ago. At some points, it was a thousand feet thick. • The ice sheet’s furthest southern extent on the Eastern Seaboard was the area that is now NYC, and the glacial debris and outwash created Long Island.• The sea level dropped hundreds of feet globally.

“New York City” before the Europeans

New York’s Glacial Past– The glacier pushed and then stopped and began to retreat.

At its point of foremost expansion, it left a ridge (a “moraine”) from Jamaica Hills in Queens down through Crown Heights, Prospect Park, Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park, down to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, and over to Todt Hill in Staten Island (410 feet, the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine).

– The Hudson River had been a deep canyon or “fjord,” but the glacier carved into a much wider and concave basin.

– The glacier’s retreat left big icy lakes that flooded the region for thousands of years; for a while the Upper Bay was a lake until it broke through into the Atlantic through the Narrows.

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“New York City” before the Europeans

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“New York City” before the Europeans

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You can see the carving action of the glacier on the “Hudson Fjord” most dramatically at Storm King in the Hudson Valley.

“New York City” before the Europeans

Why try to recover the Native American past?– Does the American Indian experience really

matter to the history of New York City and the U.S. at large?

– If so, how? If not, why?

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“New York City” before the Europeans

First Humans– Nomadic hunters from Siberia crossed the Bering Strait

land bridge into the previously unpopulated Americas roughly 15,000 – 12,000 years ago. Sea-level rise from melting glaciers flooded over the bridge.

– First humans in NYC area were nomadic hunters in following “megafauna”—wooly mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers, mastodons, musk oxen, giant sloths, bears, giant beavers, etc.—from about 12,000 to 9,000 years ago. These hunters only left flint spear points behind.

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“New York City” before the Europeans

First Humans– First wave of nomadic hunters disappear as climate

warms and megafauna move out about 9,000 years ago; warmer climate pushes the ecology from colder conifer forests to warmer hardwood ones.

– A second wave of humans—semi-nomadic small-game hunters and foragers—move into the region about 6,500 years ago. They subsisted on deer, wild turkey, fish, shellfish, nuts, and berries. These were the Lenape’s ancestors.

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“New York City” before the Europeans

Becoming the Lenape– About 2,500 years ago, they learned to hunt with bows

and arrows, to make pottery, and cultivate squash, sunflowers, and possibly tobacco.

– About 1,000 years ago, they may have learned how to cultivate beans and maize. These changes could support larger populations.

– By the time Europeans arrived about 500 years ago, what is now NYC probably had 15,000 people, and the whole tri-state metro area something like 50,000 to 65,000 total, although these numbers are hugely contested (as are all “guesstimates” of pre-Colombian population figures).

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“New York City” before the Europeans

Lenape Society– The Lenape were comprised of a dozen or so groups

stretching from eastern Connecticut through New Jersey.– Language: Most Lenape in the region spoke Munsee, a

dialect of the Delaware language.– Primary Identity: With small local group ranging from dozens

to hundreds; also identified by the areas in which they lived.– No political entities or leaders; ties were felt more through

respect, kinship, and cultural practices. – Phratries: “Clan” identities within discrete groups of Lenape

identified with one of three animals: wolf, turtle, turkey. May have been sub-categories within these.

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“New York City” before the Europeans

Lenape Society– Matrilineal structure: Phratry identity and other familial and clan

identities were passed down through the mother.– When men and women divorced, their children would go with the

mother’s side of the family.– Europeans were struck at how healthy they appeared and how none

seemed to have any physical deformities or disabilities; they also viewed the men as lazy compared to hard-working women.

Seasonal Nomads – Moved to the shore in spring for fishing and harvesting shellfish and

remained until autumn.– In autumn they moved inland to harvest crops they had planted.– In winter, they tended to move further inland to for shelter, and for

more reliable sources of small game and firewood.– Wintered in multi-family longhouses in sheltered areas, and used

portable single-family wigwams in summer.11

“New York City” before the Europeans

Lenapehoking:“Where the

Lenapes Dwell”

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“New York City” before the Europeans

Differing Sense of Property from Europeans– They did believe in individual property, but it made little

sense to own more than what could be moved easily.– They did not believe in individual ownership of land in the

way Europeans do.– Wampum or sewan: Given as a ceremonial sign of respect;

the Dutch start encouraging its use as currency. Wampum are beads made from the shell of whelks and quahogs.

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Contemporary wampum made by Long Island Indians.

“New York City” before the Europeans

“Ecosystem Managers”– Evidence suggests that the Lenape controlled the ecology of

Manhattan through horticulture and fire.– “Three sisters”: maize, beans, and corn grown together. The

beans enrich the soil with nitrogen that helps the other two grow better. Sunflowers were also beneficial.

– Rotated the use of fields over time, allowing them to revert to grasslands and then forest after depletion—”succession.”

– Burned areas to get rid of underbrush and cultivate grasslands to create hunting grounds attractive to deer; fires also enriched the soil.

– Mesingw: Spirit who protected the welfare of the animals of the forest; he needed to be appeased for the killing of game by taking only what was needed and through tobacco offerings.

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What the Europeans Brought… Disease, Alcohol, and Guns

– Large numbers die of diseases brought from Europe to which the Lenape had no resistance: the greatest killer was smallpox, but also: diphtheria, measles, mumps, and scarlet fever.

– According to one account, from 1664 to 1670, the number of Lenape villages on Manhattan shrunk from six to two.

– According to Daniel Denton, who published the first English language account of Manhattan in 1670, “it hath generally been observed, that where the English come to settle, a Divine Hand makes way for them, by removing of cutting off the Indians either by Wars one with the other, or by some raging mortal Disease.”

– Europeans also noted that alcohol had a devastating effect on most Indian. Denton again: “They are great lovers of strong drink, yet do not care for drinking, unless they have enough to make themselves drunk…”

– Indian wars also becamedeadlier with the introduction of guns.

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