In 1634, the Dutch West India Company was anxious to know why the fur trade from New Netherland had been declining, so the company sent three employees far into Iroquois country to investigate. Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert led the expedition from Fort Orange (present-day Albany, NY). His is the earliest known description of the interior of what is today New York State and its seventeenth-century native inhabitants. Van den Bogaert was a keen observer, and his journal is not only a daily log of where the expedition party traveled; it is also a detailed account of the Mohawks and the Oneidas: the settlements, modes of subsistence, and healing rituals. Van den Bogaert’s extraordinary wordlist is the earliest known recorded vocabulary of the Mohawk language. Gehring’s translation and Starna’s annotations provide indispensable material for anthropologists, ethnohistorians, linguists, and anyone with a special interest in Native American studies. Michelson’s current additions to the wordlist of Mohawk equivalents with English glosses (wherever possible) and his expert analysis of the language in the Native American passages offer a valuable new dimension to this edition of the journal.

For centuries the history of the Mohawk Valley has been shaped by the complex relationships among the valley’s native inhabitants, the Mohawk Indians, and its colonists, starting with the Dutch. In Mohawk Country collects for the first time the principal documentary narratives that reveal the full scope of this Mohawk-settler interaction. Some of the sources have never before been translated into English, and several have not been previously published. Of those works that had been published, nearly all are out of print. The Mohawk location near Albany, New York put them at the center of transactions between the Iroquois and European colonists. (The Mohawk were one of the constituent nations within the League of the Iroquois.) These narratives-written by Dutch merchants, French Jesuit missionaries, English soldiers, romantic European travelers, and other literate observers-provide often biased but always fascinating accounts of the Mohawk and their valley. The reader is treated to over two centuries of history, starting with the arrival of the Dutch in the early seventeenth century to the planning of the Erie Canal in the early nineteenth century. These records bring to life the rapid changes experienced by both the Mohawk and their European neighbors. Wars, catastrophic epidemics, and the diplomacy of nearly two centuries are all well represented in this volume. Fascinating cultural differences are also unearthed: the French, for example, dealt with the Mohawk much differently than the Dutch or the English. Just as importantly, these writings reveal—from the unique perspectives of the observer—the Mohawk’s struggle to retain their culture in the midst of evolving political, social, and physical environments.

Van den Bogaert's journal of their adventures, fears, success, and hardships of making a journey in winter to an Iroquois Country in what is now New York State.

This edition of A Description of New Netherland provides the first complete and accurate English-language translation of an essential first-hand account of the lives and world of Dutch colonists and northeastern Native communities in the seventeenth century. Adriaen van der Donck, a graduate of Leiden University in the 1640s, became the law enforcement officer for the Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswijck, located along the upper Hudson River. His position enabled him to interact extensively with Dutch colonists and the local Algonquians and Iroquoians. An astute observer, detailed recorder, and accessible writer, Van der Donck was ideally situated to write about his experiences and the natural and cultural worlds around him. Van der Donck s Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant was first published in 1655 and then expanded in 1656. An inaccurate and abbreviated English translation appeared in 1841 and was reprinted in 1968. This new volume features an accurate, polished translation by Diederik Willem Goedhuys and includes all the material from the original 1655 and 1656 editions. The result is an indispensable first-hand account with enduring value to historians, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists.

When the English conquered New Netherland in 1664, they found a well-established society that was firmly held together by a Dutch-modelled government and church, and which maintained continuous communication with its fatherland, the Dutch Republic. Combined sources from American and Dutch archives provide a lively picture of every-day life in this colony. Newly wealthy traders, craftsmen and other workers, and people who survived thanks to a well-organized system of poor relief are the main characters in this study of one of its major communities, Beverwijck on the upper Hudson (present-day Albany, New York). Beavers and shell beads that served as money, daily visits by Indians, and the presence of African slaves make clear that Beverwijck was not only Dutch, but a new, 'American' society, as well.

Volume XI of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts comprises the correspondence of Petrus Stuyvesant from 1647 to 1653. It represents the first six years of his seventeen-year tenure as director general of New Netherland, spanning the final years of the war with Spain through the first war with England. Stuyvesant became director general of the possessions of the West India Company at a critical time in the history of the United Provinces. Major changes were taking place in European affairs. The thirty year war in Germany and the eighty-year Dutch revolt against Spain were both to be resolved within a year. England had overthrown the monarchy and was about to embark on an experiment with republicanism, which would have grave implications forthe Dutch nation. Through this volume of Stuyvesant's letters, Charles T. Gehring shows how the young Stuyvesant—only thirty-six years old when he became director—handled major problems in his administration. Through recovered correspondence from West India Company directors from Amsterdam, Gehring shows how Stuyvesant managed to confront the challenges before him. His accomplishments were many but he was renowned for the stabilization of the boundary with New England; the resolution of the dispute with the patroonship of Rensselaerswijck; and the neutralization of Swedish influence in the Delaware.

In a book that spans the Iroquoian culture from its ancient roots to its survival in the modern world, William Engelbrecht maintains that two themes pervade this development: warfare and spirituality. An investigation of oral tradition, archaeology, and historical records provides new insight into this now largely vanished world known as Iroquoia. Engelbrecht covers a wide geographic range, exploring regional and temporal differences in material culture and subsistence patterns. He finds change over time in the distribution and size of communities and in response to environmental demographic, and social factors. In addition, he furthers the controversial debate that "arrow sacrifice" and other beliefs spread from Mesoamerica with the dispersal of maize and horticulture. Although scholars have suggested that palisaded hilltop Iroquoian villages were constructed with an eye for defense, this book is unique in showing that the longhouse—known mainly as a community forum and spiritual place—may also have served as a defense structure. Throughout this work, which will become the new standard text to which scholars will refer, Engelbrecht reminds us that the the study of the Iroquoian people continues to enrich and inform the modern world.

The individual and cultural upheavals of early colonial New France were experienced differently by French explorers and settlers, and by Native traditionalists and Catholic converts. However, European invaders and indigenous people alike learned to negotiate the complexities of cross-cultural encounters by reimagining the meaning of kinship. Part micro-history, part biography, Religion, Gender, and Kinship in Colonial New France explores the lives of Etienne Brulé, Joseph Chihoatenhwa, Thérèse Oionhaton, and Marie Rollet Hébert as they created new religious orientations in order to survive the challenges of early seventeenth-century New France. Poirier examines how each successfully adapted their religious and cultural identities to their surroundings, enabling them to develop crucial relationships and build communities. Through the lens of these men and women, both Native and French, Poirier illuminates the historical process and powerfully illustrates the religious creativity inherent in relationship-building.

This is the first major book to explore uniquely Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and specifically Oneida, components in the Native American oral narrative as it existed around 1900. Drawn largely from early twentieth-century journals by non-Indigenous scholar Hope Emily Allen, much of which was published in Oneida Iroquois Folklore, Myth, and History for the first time. Even as he studies time-honored themes and such stories as the Haudenosaunee account of creation, Anthony Wonderley breaks new ground examining links between legend, history, and everyday life. He pointedly questions how oral traditions are born and develop. Uncovering tales told over the course of 400 years, Wonderley further defines and considers endurance and sequence in oral narratives.. Finally, possible links between Oneida folklore and material culture are explored in discussions of craft works and archaeological artifacts of cultural and symbolic importance. Arguably the most complete study of its kind, the book will appeal to a wide range of professional disciplines from anthropology, history, and folklore to religion and Native American studies.