CHAPTER ONE The Aborigines

When Columbus was landing in the West Indies, and discovering America, the Champlain Valley was thickly populated. There are signs of Indian village sites all along the shores and the thousands of stone implements, arrow and spear points, scrapers, hatchets, pestles and mortars that are turned up each year indicate an occupation of hundreds, probably thousands, of years. But when the first white man arrived all was silence and desolation. The fierce Iroquois from the south had not long before slaughtered the peaceful Algonquin Indians and driven the survivors back into the mountains, where they were living a hand to mouth existence. In fact so degenerate had they become that the Iroquois referred to them as “Adirondacks” or “Bark-eaters,” because of their necessity of depending on the bark of trees during the winter when game was scarce. Remains of these people are so many that for a hundred years arrow heads and other stone implements have been found on the shore of the lake under the walls of the Fort and yet each rain and wind storm discloses new ones. These Indians were a partly agricultural people as shown by the many bits of pottery and hoes that are found, but little is definitely known of them or their habits.

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Champlain and the Iroquois Near Ticonderoga, July 30, 1609 From “Champlain’s Life and Travels, 1613”

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