Description
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.
Table of Contents
Tables and Figures
Preface
Introduction
A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635
Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert
Of Incursions by the Hiroquois, and the Captivity of Father Jogues, 1642-1643
Barthelemy Vimont
Of the Deliverance of Father Isaac Jogues, and His Arrival in France, 1643-1644
Barthelemy Vimont
Novum Belgium and an Account of Rene Goupil, 1644
Isaac Jogues
A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, 1644
Johannes Megapolensis, Jr.
Two Letters of Bressani, 1644
Francesco Giuseppe Bressani
Of the Mission of the Martyrs, Begun in the Country of the lroquois, 1646
Jerome Lalemant
Voyages of Pierre Esprit Radisson, 1651-1654
Pierre Esprit Radisson
Of the Capture and Deliverance of Father Joseph Poncet, 1653
Frarnois-Joseph le Mercier and Joseph-Antoine Poncet de la Riviere
Description of New Netherland, 1653
Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck
Translated by Diederik Goedhuys
Of the Condition of the Country of the Iroquois, and of Their Cruelties, 1659-1660
Jerome Lalemant
Letter from a Frenchman in Captivity Among the Agnieronons, to a Friend of His at Three Rivers, 1660-1661
Jerome Lalemant
Notable Embassy of the Iroquois, 1663-1664
Jerome Lalemant
Of the Iroquois Country, and the Routes Leading Thither, 1664-1665
Francois-Joseph le Mercier
Of the Mission of Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois of Agnie, 1667-1668
Francois-Joseph le Mercier
Of the Mission of the Martyrs in the Country of the Anniez, or Lower Iroquois, 1668-1669
Francois-Joseph le Mercier
Of the Mission of the Martyrs in the Country of Agnie, or of the Lower Iroquois, 1669-1670
Jean Pierron / 169
Of the Mission of Sainte Marie Among the Lower Iroquois and of the Mission of Gandaouague, or of Saint Pierre, in the Country of Agnie, 1672-1673
Jean de Lamberville
Of the Agnie Mission, 1673-1674
Claude Dablon
Observations of Wentworth Greenhalgh in a Journey from Albany to the Indians Westward, 1677
Wentworth Greenhalgh
Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the American Colonies in 1679-1680, 1680
Jasper Danckaerts
A Narrative of an Attempt Made by the French of Canada upon the Mohaques Country, 1692
Nicholas Bayard
Report on the French Attack on the Mohawks, 1693
Peter Schuyler
An Account of the Military Operations in Canada Against the English and the Iroquois, Since the Month of November 1692, 1693
Jean Bochart de Champigny, Sieur de Noroy et de Verneuil
A Journey to Onondaga, 1750
Christian Daniel Claus and Conrad Weiser
Translated and edited by Helga Doblin and William A.Starna
Description of the Country Between Oswego and Albany-1757, 1757
Anonymous
Journal of Warren Johnson, 1760-1761
Warren Johnson
Journal of Joseph Bloomfield, 1776
Joseph Bloomfield
Visit to Schenectady, 1780
Francois-Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux
Diary of Peter Sailly on a Journey in America in the Year 1784, 1784
Peter Sailly
Journey to the Oneidas, 1784
Francois Marbois
Travels of a Gentleman from Milan, 1790
Paolo Andreani
Translated by Elisabeth Ruthman
Journal of Travels, Principally by Water, from Albany to the Seneca Lake, 1791
Elkanah Watson
Dr. Belknap's Tour to Oneida, 1796
Jeremy Belknap
Visit to the Falls of Niagara, 1800
John Maude
On a Mission Through the Mohawk and Black River Country, in the Year 1802, 1802
John Taylor
Journal of Trip from New Jersey to Oneida Lake, 1802
Friedrich Rohde
Translated by Charles T. Gehring
De Witt Clinton's Private Canal Journal, 1810
De Witt Clinton
References Cited
About the Author
Dean R. Snow is professor and head of anthropology at Penn State University and a leading authority on Mohawk Valley archaeology. He is coeditor of Iroquois Medical Botany, published by Syracuse University Press.
Charles T. Gehring, an internationally known linguist, is the director of the New York State Library's New Netherland Project.
William A. Starna is professor of anthropology at SUNY College at Oneonta. Gehring and Starna edited and translated A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635, also published by Syracuse University Press.
December 1996