Huron-St. Lawrence Iroquois Relations in the Terminal Prehistoric ...

24 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY NO. 44auspices of the New York Historical Society andthe Smithsonian Institution. He published theresults of this survey twice, first with the SmithsonianInstitution then commercially in Buffalo(Squire 1851a:17-26; 1851b). In 1850 and again in1851 Franklin B. Hough published short papers inwhich he noted the locations and nature of sites inJefferson County and described some pottery andpipes from these sites (Hough 1850:100-105;1851:103-109). In 1854 Hough re-published muchof this information in his History of JeffersonCounty (1854:10-13). The Jefferson CountyHistorical Society published a booklet in 1895which includes a paper by Henry Woodworth thatnotes the presence of archaeological sites in generalterms. In 1898 Edgar C. Emerson published hiswork on Jefferson County in which he noted thelocation of many archaeological sites using a seriesof sketch maps. In 1900 William M. Beauchamppublished an inventory of the archaeological sitesin the County.But it was not until 1906, when a PeabodyMuseum field party under M.R. Harrington excavatedon fourteen Iroquois sites, that a record ofthe Iroquois material culture from Jefferson Countybecame available. Harrington reported on thirteenof these sites in his paper Prehistoric Iroquois Sitesin Northern New York (1922) but a more detailedaccount of his work on the Putnam site remainsunpublished (Harrington n.d.). In 1922 Arthur C.Parker published a catalogue of archaeological sitesin New York State which includes those inJefferson County. This work was largely derivedfrom Beauchamp's earlier inventory. William A.Ritchie visited Iroquois sites in Jefferson Countybut he did not publish an account of his work there(Funk 1977).In 1966 Robert Weber, a graduate student at theState University of New York at Buffalo(SUNYAB) surveyed the Sandy Creek drainageand the Watertown area. He succeeded in locatingseventeen of the sites recorded in the early literature(Weber 1968; White n.d.a:l).In 1967 a Highway Salvage Survey Team fromSUNYAB surveyed areas in Jefferson County andthe Durham site in particular. In part due to thesuccess of this work, Marian White formulated aresearch proposal entitled "The Nature of Warfareand Confederacies among the Northern Iroquois"and in 1968 conducted the SUNYAB SummerSchool which located some twenty sites in theSandy Creek drainage. Excavations were conductedon eight sites including the Durham siteagain. In 1969 the SUNYAB Summer Field Schoolundertook a major excavation on the Durham site(Sidler 1971). Plans to continue work by SUNYABin Jefferson County were terminated by Dr. White'suntimely death.Over the past decade excavations have been conductedon a number of St. Lawrence Iroquois sitesin Jefferson County. Marjorie Burger and PeterPratt have excavated on the Camp Drum 1 site;Peter Miller of SUNY at Potsdam on the Depauvillesite and the late Merill Waters of Water-town, NewYork on the Frank site near Dexter. Earl Sidlerconducted a field school on the Carlos site and onthe Morse site. He also excavated on the Potockisite. Accounts of this work have not beenpublished.The long and varied history of Iroquois archaeologicalsites in Jefferson County is characterized bytheir having been ravaged by collectors from farand wide. Large collections remarked upon in the19th century for their sophisticated artifacts can nolonger be located. Tales of collectors who saved onlypipes and those who only saved reconstructedpottery rims are still recounted. Apart from the JackCarter collection at Clayton, the Merill Waters collectionin Watertown and a few others which providereliable provenance, no private collectionshave survived for study.The literature suggests there were some sixty-oddIroquois sites in the County, nearly double that innearby Ontario and Quebec. However this estimateshould be noted with reservations. There has notbeen a comprehensive archaeological survey of theCounty and current site listings are flawed by themany names by which some sites have been knownover the years. The earlier Algonquin-Iroquoisdichotomy by which sites in the County wereclassified also continues to conceal some earlyIroquois sites.European MaterialAlthough extensive and at times exhaustive digginghas been carried on in Jefferson County sinceat least 1849, not one article of European origin hasbeen excavated in an archaeological context whichpermits it to be attributed to the St. LawrenceIroquois.However, European material has been found onor near Iroquois sites. In 1802 Taylor observed:"The point of a steel sword — 2 edges — about afoot long, was found last spring in ploughing in thefort [embankment] located on the south branch ofSandy Creek" (1850:1139). Hough (1854:11),Beauchamp (1886:66) and Edgar Emerson(1898:576) repeat this account of the find atEllisburg without adding details. Hough andEmerson also mention how musket balls, hatchetsand knives have been found in the County attributingthem to the presence of the French and Englishin the 17th century and later. Emerson also notesthat a star-shaped silver ornament with the initials'P.H.' was found in Adams Township near Sandy