The Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave, NY

While we were in Schoharie County, rambling through the deep, mysterious recesses of the subterranean (Howe Caverns!), I discovered another attraction nearby: Iroquois Indian Museum. I grew up in New York State, ancient land of the Iroquois Nations, so their history has been drilled into my skull endlessly since my school years. As a homeschooling mom (and New York traveler extraordinaire), the Iroquois history has become familiar territory. We’ve been to the Shakowi Cultural Center in Oneida, gone on an extensive search for the Oneida Stone, learned about the history of Hamilton College (originally built to educate local Indians and white settlers for the ministry) and Reverend Samuel Kirkland‘s house, paid our respects at the Oriskany Battlefield monument, and on and on and on!

The Iroquois Indian Museum is unlike any of the other places I visited. The artifacts and art displays mingled Indian culture and it’s development with the history of the Iroquois. In case you have never heard of the Iroquois, allow me to briefly introduce you. The Iroquois Nation consisted of five (then later, six) tribes of the Eastern Woodlands natives of North America: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, and later, the Tuscaroras from Carolina. These tribes make a peace agreement with each other and were allotted tracts of land stretching across the untamed wilderness of what we now know as Upstate New York– the Mohawks were the “keepers of the door” near Albany and the Senecas maintained the other end of the land.

What made the Iroquois so unique was their form of self-government. When other tribes across the land were still hunting and gathering and slaughtering buffalo and each other, the Iroquois made a pact and recorded it with wampum (a belt of beads made from seashells).

The Iroquois Indian Museum is an amalgam of modern Indian art from local artists and artifacts discovered throughout New York State. Oh, how I remember as a little girl, digging in my yard looking for arrowheads!

An old Mohawk pot, reconstructed from shards.

A modern work of art crafted from a deer antler.

This is an amazing sculpture from a moose antler!

Indian beadwork from the late 1800s. The ladies of the Iroquois nations still make such lovely beadwork. I saw many such items for sale at the New York State Fair this year.

Wampum beads. It was difficult to tell what articles were new and what were historic.

Iroquois women used to decorate their pottery just like ladies still love to do, today. The placard said that you could always tell what tribe pottery came from because the designs were unique to the groups.

The Iroquois Indian Museum has two levels. One is filled with such amazing artifacts and art work. The lower level is for kids. There’s a big turtle pond that my son loved– the turtles were rather friendly and swam up to him. Or maybe my son just has this *knack* with turtles, I don’t know. There are “hands on” activities, tables with coloring sheets, a few televisions playing Iroquois-related documentaries, and a booth for dressing up.

We did not take advantage of it due to the cold, rainy weather, but the Iroquois Indian Museum has 45 acres of wilderness trails in the back. The area is a real wilderness, with a stream, lush forests and wildlife. It’s a popular place for birdwatching, beaver watching and searching for Natty Bumpo and Uncas. Haha, kidding about that last part, although my kids are CONVINCED we’ll find them someday.

There is an admission fee to the museum, and the museum closes January 1st. It reopens in May and is open every day except Monday until November.

A Visit to Fort Ticonderoga, Part 3

We spent the better part of a day at Fort Ticonderoga, taking in the magnificent sights of the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain, absorbing the amazing and sometimes tragic history, and exploring the fort’s numerous labyrinthine pathways and alcoves. And this was all before we had even entered one building! Read Part 1 and Part 2 of our visit.

New visitors are strongly urged to visit the visitor’s hall and view a movie about the fort. Even though we are very familiar with Fort Ticonderoga history and importance in battles, we sat and enjoyed the video. I was especially intrigued with the history of its restoration. You can read about that in my previous post, A Visit to Fort Ticonderoga, Part 2.

There is SO much to see inside the buildings that I cannot possibly do it justice here. I only highlight what I found interesting, and even then I must condense it. I highly recommend that you visit the Fort, there’s something for everyone there.

Both stories of the buildings are loaded with fort memorabilia and quite a number of breathtaking archaeological finds. I was awed by this: one of the old metal armor breastplates presumably made by the first French soldiers here in the 1750s. The plaque card says the armor was discovered in 1941, built into the wall. Because of its unusual position in the wall construction, archaeologists believe the armor is a votive offering by the French masons, for “good luck.”

There were many such artifacts to be seen:

This blew me away. A piece of her wedding dress?!

A watch key was a small metal device. With it, the watch owner could wind the watch. Amazing!

George Washington had good ol’ snuff. Well, at least the snuff BOX. Read more

I Went to the New York State Fair!

Can you believe it? I’ve lived in New York all my life, even a few miles away from the fairgrounds, and have never been. Finally, now that I am {unintelligible} years old, I went! It was a very pleasant experience. Here are some the highlights.

Hands down, our favorite part of the fair was the Harlem Wizards. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved the Harlem Globetrotters. I always wanted to see them perform live, but I never got the chance. The Harlem Wizards, the brainchild of Howie Davis in 1962, were brought together to give the Globetrotters a little competition. And indeed they do! The boys and I loved their show. Swoop (Dwayne Simpson), Broadway (Eric Jones), RoadRunner James Tyndal) and G-Wiz (Gordon Malone) got the audience involved in a few games and really put on a great — but all too brief! — show. These guys rock!

I also enjoyed the horse show. We got to “visit” with a few of the horses in the “waiting room” of the arena. They are such beautiful animals.

There was also an Iroquois longhouse display and an entire area devoted to local Iroquois tribes cultures and art, with loads of gift shops.

Some of the displays were very nice. This is a handmade birch bark canoe, crafted from all natural materials. Read more

Seneca Lake, Home of the Lake Farts

OK, I will state that I do not like the word “fart.” It’s crude and vulgar, and I never use the word. But golly gee whillikers, it’s a hilarious description for the booming sounds that burp out of Seneca Lake! LOL. I’ll get to that odd phenomenon in a minute.

Seneca Lake is one of the Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes are a cluster of eleven lakes in New York’s central/western area. Seven of these lakes are considered “Finger” Lakes, so named because mapmakers thought they looked like a handprint on New York’s geography.
Read more

The Herkimer Diamond

Herkimer is a county and a city in Upstate New York. It’s name comes from an heroic general who dies in battle during the American Revolution (see my post about Nicolas Herkimer here and the Battle of Oriskany here). The Herkimer diamond is the common name given to a unique kind of quartz, found in the central-eastern section of Upstate New York, in the Mohawk Valley. (The Mohawk Valley is nestled between our mighty Adirondack Mountain Range and the Catskill Mountain Region; see my post here for more about the Mohawk Valley).

The Herkimer Diamond is not really a diamond; it’s the name for a double-terminated quartz, a very rare kind of quartz found in “vugs” or clusters. They have six sides (18 facets) and two terminations. Some of these stones are cloudy, some are clear, and some have impurities (like water or another quartz) inside. Herkimer Diamonds are considered semi-precious, and people come from all over the world to mine it. I always believed the Herkimer Diamond to be absolutely unique to a few counties here in Upstate NY, but I recently read that these kinds of quartz have been found in Arizona, China, and Afghanistan! There’s even a page at eBay devoted to information about the Herkimer Diamond.

There are at least two “mines” in Upstate New York where you can pay a fee, enter a quarry, and chisel away in search of Herkimer Diamonds. Or, if your search proves fruitless, purchase some Herkimer diamonds at the gift shop. I have a small bag of Herkimer diamonds in my keepsake box.

Herkimer diamonds were “first” discovered when workers were digging into the rock here in the Mohawk Valley, in the 1700s. I wonder if the Native Americans had found them before this, though, because the Mohawk Valley’s Indian name is “Kanyenka,” which means “Place of the Flint.” However, there is no abundant flint here. The late historian Paul Keesler wondered the same thing, and wrote in his book, Discovering the Valley of the Crystals:

I asked a number of students of the Mohawks where the flint was in the Mohawk Valley that was so plentiful and so unique. No one could answer that simple question. The fact is, there is no rock face or quarry in the Mohawk Valley where flint is abundant or unique.

As I discovered while researching Kuyahoora-Discovering West Canada Valley there are, however, a number of dolostone rock faces and quarries in the Mohawk Valley—from Middleville to the Noses—where a form of clear quartz crystal is abundant and unique. So unique that people from around the world come here to mine it.

Then I read Mohawk Valley Archaeology: The Sites by Dean R. Snow and In Mohawk Country by Snow, Gehring and Starna. In both books it’s noted that the “the place of the flint” was more likely “the place of the crystal”, referring to quartz crystals that are now called Herkimer Diamonds.

I contacted Charles Gehring and he referred me to Dean Snow. Dean is one of North America’s leading historical anthropologists and is currently Professor and Head of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. He was extremely helpful and suggested I read his book The Iroquois.

In that book, Snow writes: “They were known to themselves and to the other Iroquois nations as the Kanyenkehaka, the people of Kanyenke (also spelled Ganienkeh). This has usually been translated “Place of the Flint,” but the flint (or more properly chert) sources in Mohawk country were not particularly sought after. More important were the clear quartz crystals now called Herkimer diamonds, which could be quarried in a few local mines and abound on Mohawk village sites. These were highly valued by Iroquois and other nations. Kanyenke was more likely “Place of the Crystals.”

Crystals were symbolically important as amulets of success, health, and long life, artifacts more likely to inspire a name than a second-rate chert. The Mohawks were the main suppliers of quartz crystals up to 1614. After that they became primary middlemen for the Dutch glass beads that replaced them.”

Sometime the kids and I are going to go diamond-hunting.

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