Chapter 10: Lowland Skippers and Longhouse People. c1605–1635.

Throughout the 16th century, the vast European dominions of the Habsburg kings of Spain included the Low Countries, otherwise known as the Netherlands. During the Counter Reformation, Dutch Protestants writhed under the Catholic domination of King Philip II. In 1568, the Spanish Inquisition found the inhabitants of the Netherlands guilty of heresy and high treason; King Philip duly issued a death sentence for the whole population, excluding only a select few individuals. Dutch rebels fought back against Spanish occupation, triggering the Eighty Years War. With peasants taking up arquebuses and Sea Beggars storming port cities, rebels declared the independence of the northern Protestant provinces. Under the stadtholder, Prince Maurice (1585-1625), from the House of Orange-Nassau, proud Dutch patriots embraced the color orange, putting it on their flag and painting it into portraits; Dutch farmers discarded old strains of carrot – typically purple, yellow, or white – and cultivated a new strain colored bright orange.

The Netherlands entered a golden age. From the Inner Court of the Binnenhof, in The Hague, Stadtholder Maurice ruled in harmony with the Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, and with the newly formed parliament, the States-General. While Maurice focused on military affairs, Oldenbarnevelt promoted commerce and maritime trade. In 1602, to capitalize on the lucrative spice trade in the East Indies, Oldenbarnevelt oversaw the creation of the Dutch East India Company; to boost the trade of company shares, he also established the first modern stock exchange in Amsterdam. Oldenbarnevelt’s close colleague, Hugo Grotius, proposed the doctrine of “The Free Sea,” advocating maritime freedom and international law. Dutch seafarers now surged toward the East Indies and the West Indies, hitherto monopolized by Spanish and Portuguese fleets.1

The States-General offered a reward of 25,000 guilders for the discovery of a shorter route to Asia. Hoping to collect this prize, the Dutch East India Company engaged an experienced English captain, Henry Hudson. Hudson’s contract bid him seek an eastern passage north of Russia, but his friend, John Smith, had written to him about a possible western passage north of Virginia. With an English-Dutch crew, Hudson embarked in the spring of 1609 in a northeastern direction. When Arctic icebergs blocked the passage of his sloop, the Half Moon, Hudson wasted no time taking a western tack across the Atlantic.

Making landfall in July 1609, Hudson spent the summer exploring the coastline north of Virginia, between the 36th and 44th parallels. Around the 40th parallel, the Half Moon skirted the southern shores of a long island, where they began trading with the natives. Returning from the shore on a rainy night that dampened their weapons’ fuses, a small party of crewmen came under a hail of Indian arrows; second mate John Colman was killed when an arrow pierced his throat. Upon burying Colman’s body the next day, the mournful crew named the site “Colman’s Point.” Dutch cartographers miscopied “Colman” in forms such as “Coninen,” “Conijnen” and “Coynen” and “Conyne,” and applied it to a small island. Englanders would finally arrive at CONEY Island, echoing a term for rabbit in 17th century English and Dutch.

Entering the mouth of a broad northern passage, Hudson guided the lumbering Half Moon through the midst of a valley wilderness. Steep bluffs rose from the water’s edge; towering forests of oak, elm, hickory, and chestnut spread in every direction; soaring mountains rose on the horizon. Indians came on deck to trade tobacco, furs, and fresh meats. Beyond the 42nd parallel, Hudson was disheartened to find the passage ahead narrowing. He had found a mere river, not a passage to the Indies. Here, at the head of the navigation, Indians who had never seen Europeans crowded along the banks, gawking at the hulking Half Moon and its white-skinned crew. Among the Indian spectators stood men and women, and many children; the Dutch recalled one site as the children’s corner, called “Kinderhoeck,” now KINDERHOOK.

On the return leg down Hudson's newfound river, the Half Moon was beset by war canoes and another violent exchange of European gunfire and Indian arrows followed. Farther downstream one of Hudson's crewmen, Robert Juet, wrote in his journal of finding safety on the west bank, “…on that side of the river that is called Manna-hata. There we saw no people to trouble us.” Since Juet made no mention of the name’s derivation, its origins remain a matter of contention.

Anchoring at the English port of Dartmouth on its return to the Netherlands, the Half Moon’s voyage ended abruptly. King James summoned Hudson to explain his actions, while royal authorities detained Juet and other English crewmen. Sourced from their information, an English cartographer produced the first known map of Hudson’s discoveries. Though the original English map was lost, a copy survived in Spanish archives. In this Spanish copy, “Mannahata” denotes a site on the west side of the river, as it does in Juet's journal; yet on the east side appears a similar name, not mentioned by Juet, perhaps gleaned from Hudson’s records: “Manahatin”.

Now England, Spain, and the Netherlands – the three imperial nations vying for control of the east coast – all had a name for the island at the river's mouth: MANHATTAN. The ancient name probably comes from an Algonquian phrase meaning place to gather wood to make bows. Indeed, Manhattan once harbored a grove of hickory trees whose wood was strong and flexible, and Indians along the lower Hudson Valley came to the island to craft their bows.

Accustomed to the gentle hills of England and the flat lowlands of Holland, Hudson and his crewmen had been left agape at the river valley’s steep cliffs and soaring mountains. They would remember this great waterway as the “River of Mountains.” To mark it a Dutch waterway, Dutch mapmakers called the river “Mauritius” for their Stadtholder, Maurice of Nassau. Some Dutch explorers and traders yet referred to it as “Hudson’s River” or the “River of Hudson.” British mapmakers – objecting to Dutch incursions on their colonial claims and advertising the primacy of an English captain – invariably called it the HUDSON River.

Hudson had failed in his quest to find a new passage to Asia and could make no claim for the 25,000-guilder bounty offered by the States-General. Hudson’s employers in the Dutch East India Company still hoped to retain favor with the States-General, the “Staaten-Generaal.” On an island south of Manhattan, put on the map after Hudson’s voyage, one Dutch East India Company boss wrote the name “Staaten-Eylandt,” STATEN Island.

Ambitious Dutch skippers hastened to follow up Hudson’s discoveries, many aiming to cash in on the lucrative trade of beaver furs. Sponsored by Dutch merchants, Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen made several voyages to inspect the region surveyed by Hudson.

Arriving in Manhattan in 1613, they were shocked to find living there a foreigner who spoke some Dutch, called Jan or Juan Rodrigues. Born to a Portuguese father and an African mother on the Spanish island of Hispaniola, he had embarked on a Dutch ship in Santo Domingo and debarked at Manhattan months earlier. Choosing to stay as a trader and translator, Rodrigues soon married an Indian woman and became the first foreign resident of Manhattan.

In late 1613, moored off Manhattan, Block’s Tyger was engulfed by fire. Working tirelessly through the winter of 1613-14, Block and his crew built the Onrust, meaning Restless, the first yacht constructed in North America. In this small, sleek craft, the Dutch skipper ventured through a passage on the east side of Manhattan, a narrow course fraught with jagged rocks below the water’s surface. Finding the passage more treacherous than a maelstrom, Block named it “Hellegat,” now rendered HELL GATE.

By sailing through the Hell Gate, he proved that Manhattan was a small triangular island.

In sailing through the Hell Gate, Block also proved that Manhattan was detached from a larger island skewed eastward. Block skirted the island’s northern shores, crooked and cut with inlets and harbors, for more than 100 miles. Since it ranked amongst the longest islands off the coast of North America, Block named it “Lange” or LONG Island.

Between the easternmost point of Long Island and the mainland to the north, Block sighted a smaller island he named “Vischer’s” or FISHERS Island. The name may be traced to Indians angling off its shores, although it more likely honored crewman Willem Vischers, who perhaps discerned the island’s shape. Continuing east from Long Island, the skipper rounded another small island hosting vast flocks of migratory birds. His fellow Dutchmen named the island in his honor, which appeared on early maps “Adriaen Block,” or “Adriaens” or BLOCK Island.

Block met regional tribes including the “Mahicans” or “Mohicans” of the MAHICAN or MOHICAN tribe; the similarly named “Morhicans” of the distinct MOHEGAN tribe; the “Pequats” of the PEQUOT tribe; and the “Wampanoos” of the WAMPANOAG tribes. These tribal names were stamped large across early 17th century charts; over time, disease and conflict reduced their numbers and their place on the maps.

Block recorded another tribe of Indians as “Nahicans,” whom he erroneously placed on his map of 1614 at the eastern end of Long Island. Correcting the captain’s error, Dutch cartographers later placed the Nahicans on the west side of the large inlet where they lived. The inlet then took the tribe’s name as NARRAGANSETT Bay.

Entering Narragansett Bay, Block passed the big island at its mouth and must have noted the red leaves of autumnal foliage and perhaps the red soil around its shoreline – for he described the island as rood. When the English heard this name, they corrupted the Dutch “Rood Eylandt” or “Rode Eylandt” to the more familiar sound of RHODE ISLAND.

By this spelling it resembled the historic Greek island of Rhodes. Seasoned seamen may have seen the island in their travels, and well-educated colonists must have read about the enormous statue that once stood astride the entrance to the island’s principal harbor: The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

An extract of Giovanni Verrazzano’s journal from his 1524 voyage further confuses the name’s source, since he described an island – probably Block Island – “about the bigness of the island of Rhodes.” But no such name appeared on French maps, for Verrazzano had named the same island “Louisa.” Unless early English colonists had gotten a copy of Verrazzano’s old French journal, and then misidentified the island, they must have learnt the name from a contemporary Dutch map.

In the spring of 1614, Christiaensen guided the Fortuyn up the Hudson; Rodrigues, who had agreed to work with the Dutch traders, probably served as translator. Near the Hudson’s head of navigation, they built a fortified trading post. Showing his allegiance to Prince Maurice from the House of Orange-Nassau, Christiaensen named it “Fort Nassau.”

In March 1614, the States-General decreed that any man who charted new lands or passages would be given a four-voyage monopoly of trade across his discoveries.2 In October, a group of Dutch businessmen who had sponsored Block and Christiaensen applied to the States General for a monopoly between the 40th and 45th parallels. In the charter granted to them, and on Block’s map of 1614, this region was named “Nieuw Nederland” – New Netherland.

The New Netherland Company engaged other Dutch skippers to chart the coastline further south. From a distinguished sea-faring family based in Hoorn, Cornelius May reached the American coast in 1614.3

South of Staten Island, a spit of land six miles long projected north from the mainland. May, and his fellow Netherlanders, referred to this Sand Point as “Sant Punt” or “Sant Hoek.” Englanders later shifted the name to SANDY HOOK.

The coastline south of Sandy Hook gave way to a double shoreline. The outer shore was a low-lying strip of sand; the inner shore was green and wooded, rising high beyond. Dutch captains could scarcely access the long inlet between the two shores. In 1614, when May tried to pass through a narrow break in the outer shore, he found shallow shoalwater upon which broke violent waves. Frustrated by conditions, he called it the Breakers Passage, “Barende Gat,” now rendered BARNEGAT.

A second inlet, wider and calmer, appeared in the double shoreline farther south, allowing May entry into a harbor. Sick of seafood and stale rations, Dutch crewmen scoured the inner shore seeking fresh fruits and berries. The land lay low and marshy, offering up little sustenance. But it was an ideal breeding ground for birds, and the men found an abundance of eggs. Captain May marked this as “Eyren” Harbor – EGG Harbor.

Farther south the coastline fell away, and May traversed the expansive body of water that Englishmen called Delaware Bay. To mark it a Dutch bay, the Dutch skipper assigned his own names to its entrance. The northern head he named Cape MAY; the southern head, which the English called Cape Delaware, he named Cape “Cornelius”. To flatter the expedition’s largest investor, Tymen Jacobsen Hinlopen, the southern head was later renamed again to Cape HENLOPEN.

The fortunes of the New Netherland Company faltered. Christiaensen was killed in an Indian attack on Fort Nassau; Rodrigues may have died with him, though anecdotal evidence suggests he may have made it back to Manhattan. Block lost interest in the New Netherland Company, instead devoting himself to the Northern Company – through which he would lead whaling expeditions deep into the Arctic Ocean. He never returned to New Netherland.4

After decades of harmonious co-rule, Stadtholder Maurice and Grand Pensionary Oldenbarnevelt came into conflict over a new Protestant schism dividing the Netherlands. After Oldenbarnevelt sided with the Remonstrants – remonstrating against the Calvinist Orthodoxy – Maurice ordered his arrest. Tried in The Hague by the States-General, Oldenbarnevelt was found guilty of high treason and beheaded. Facing life imprisonment, Hugo Grotius escaped in a chest of books and found exile in France. From across Europe, persecuted peoples still sought solace under liberal Dutch laws. Escaping capricious Catholic monarchs in France, Huguenot refugees arrived in waves throughout the 17th century. After serving under Prince Maurice in the Dutch army, Rene Descartes abandoned France for the intellectual liberty of Holland, reigniting philosophy with his thoughts: “Cogito ergo sum” – I think therefore I am. Escaping the Inquisition many Iberian Jews found asylum in Amsterdam, including the family of Baruch Spinoza – whose “Ethics” and radical philosophy were so heretical that he was later excommunicated from the Jewish faith and exiled from the Netherlands. British Protestants came too, including a Separatist sect who based themselves in Leiden; in 1620, after a decade in the Netherlands, some Separatists returned to England on the Speedwell and then embarked for America on the Mayflower.

In 1621, the States-General granted a 24-year monopoly over New Netherland to the newly formed Dutch West India Company – absorbing what was left of the New Netherland Company. Cornelius May was appointed first Director-General of the company colony. May focused on expanding fur trading operations throughout the Hudson Valley.5

Along the lower Hudson Valley and across southern New Netherland, early Dutch explorers encountered a loose confederacy of Indians. Early recordings of their own Algonquian name include “Renappi” and “Lenappys”, now typically spelled Lenape. But English settlers first encountered these Indians around Delaware Bay, and the Delaware River, and so called them Delaware Indians.

Moving north up Hudson, where the river broadens to a width of almost 5 miles, early Dutchmen encountered other Delawares, like the “Tappaans” or TAPPAN tribe; the Dutch then called this broad stretch of river the Sea of Tappans, or TAPPAN ZEE. Around the western shores of Tappan Zee, stood an Indian village on a point of land the Dutch spelled “Neyick,” now NYACK. On the rocky eastern shores stood another Indian village of stone upon stone, appearing in early forms like “Sint Sinck” preserved in forms like SING SING and OSSINING.

Beyond the Tappan Zee, the Dutch would soon find themselves at war with Delaware speaking tribe “Wappinck” once based around WAPPINGER Creek; the original Algonquian name may have been shaped to resemble a Dutch term meaning weaponed or weapon bearers. The northernmost tribe of Delaware Indians also appeared early in Dutch records as “Esopes” and “Aesopus” engendered ESOPUS Creek.

May also re-established a base at Fort Nassau, which had been ravaged by Indian attacks and seasonal Hudson floods. In 1624, Dutch traders built a sturdier fort and showed their allegiance to Prince Maurice from the House of Orange-Nassau by naming it “Fort Orange.” And at the other end of the Hudson, on Manhattan Island, May ordered construction of “Fort Amsterdam.”6

In 1626, the new director general of New Netherland, Peter Minuit, made one of history's most staggering purchases. In an era when Dutch traders would soon pay up to 3,000 guilders for a single tulip bulb, Minuit traded local Delaware Indians 60 guilders worth of tools and trinkets to occupy the island of Manhattan. The purchase secured Dutch control over the lower Hudson, and over one of the largest natural harbors in North America. The purchase also encouraged Dutch folk to settle on Manhattan – with most clustering around Fort Amsterdam, in a budding city called “New Amsterdam.” Mirroring Amsterdam’s status in the Netherlands, New Amsterdam became the capital of New Netherland.

From their position at the southern end of the Hudson River, the Dutch soon standardized their name for the river, calling it the “Noort” or North River. The southern boundary of the colony was marked by the Delaware River, which they now called the “Zuyd” or South River. And to the tidal strait separating Long Island from Manhattan – and extending into the sound between Long Island and the mainland – the Dutch bestowed the name of the “Oost” or EAST River.

Dutch skippers and landlubbers explored other coastal channels and creeks – which they typically called “kills.” Separating Staten Island’s northern shores from the mainland was the Channel of the Pass, or KILL VAN KULL. A Back Channel, separating the mainland from the island’s western shores, was “Achter Kill,” now ARTHUR KILL. A stream of fresh water rising in the island heights flowed west through FRESHKILL. While many brackish streams became “Groote Kills” or GREAT KILLS.

Early Dutch explorers encountered another Delaware tribe on Staten Island and the mainland opposite Manhattan, inhabiting a region called “Raretangh” perhaps signifying River behind the Island, specifically Staten Island. The Dutch soon called the valley, and its resident tribe, RARITAN.

Between the northwest tip of Staten Island and the mainland, Dutch explorers entered the mouth of a river whose name they reported in forms such as “Achkinckeshacky” and “Quackensack,” now HACKENSACK, perhaps from an Algonquian term meaning River Mouth; the name became synonymous with the surrounding area and the resident tribe of Delaware Indians, the Hackensacks.

Among the muddling network of streams and swamps in the Hackensack Valley, Dutchmen found a Crooked Creek at CROMAKILL; a Cross Creek at DWARS KILL; and a Watercress Creek at CRESSKILL. They noted cedar and oak trees in abundance, but also found thickets of willow, or “tene,” in Willow Creek, TENAKILL; in Willow Swamp, TENAFLY; and in a Willow Neck at TEANECK.

Overlooking a bend in the Hackensack River, early Dutch visitors found a large rocky outcrop over 200 feet high, which had become a giant nest of snakes. Eschewing the area, the Dutch called it “Slangenberg,” meaning Snake Hill or Snake Mountain. The local Algonquian speakers, equally wary of the area, called it SECAUCUS, Place of Snakes or Abundant Snakes.

Minuit oversaw the expansion of the colony southward, to the Delaware or South River. In 1629, company agents negotiated with the Delaware Indians to secure Dutch title to Delaware Bay. In 1631 Dutch officials fortified a settlement on the southern shores of the bay; suggesting that the local waters were flocked by swans, they called it Swan Valley, “Zwaanendael,” or “Swaanendael.” Colonists found the site plagued by mosquitoes and beset by Indian attacks.

Although Swaanendael was abandoned by 1633, the Dutch continued to leave their mark on the shores of Delaware Bay. A stream running through Swaanendael subsequently appeared on maps as “Horenkil,” Whores Creek, for reasons never clarified by contemporary Dutchmen; some later chroniclers would link it to the Dutch city of Hoorn. A stream opening to a wide estuary became Broad Creek, BROADKILL. Groves of plum trees gave name to Plum Point, PRIMEHOOK. Colonial records mention the killing of several Dutchmen in the area, with Murder Creek becoming MURDERKILL – a double slaying to English speakers. Further along the bay a Little Tree Point, early called “Bombatiens Hook” became BOMBAY HOOK. On the opposite shores of Delaware Bay, the Dutch legacy is less evident but for the legend of a ship called the Prince Maurice, apparently captured and torched by Indians at the mouth of the MAURICE River.

Moving deeper into Delaware Bay, other names speak of strife met by early Dutch captains. Colonial legends tell of a Dutch ship laden with brandy, “brandewijn,” wrecked upon the banks and spilling deep red wine into the waters of BRANDYWINE Creek.

Early Dutch explorations up the Delaware River almost failed to discern the mouth of one of its longest tributaries, largely concealed behind thick bushes overhanging the banks. Anecdotal evidence tells of Netherlanders or Swedes, alternately pursued by Indians or Netherlanders, leaving the Delaware’s main stem to shroud themselves in the Hidden or Hiding Stream: SCHUYLKILL River.

To develop New Netherland, the Dutch West India Company deeded millions of acres in the Hudson Valley to wealthy investors from the Netherlands. These patroons, in turn, were given the power of feudal lords and the task of importing their own tenants. The largest patroonship was granted to a company director and diamond merchant, Kiliaen van Rensselaer. The “Rensselaerwyck” estate would grow to encompass more than 1,000,000 acres of land, primarily east of the Hudson, embedding the name of RENSSELAER. Although Rensselaer never crossed the Atlantic, other Dutchmen got their start working on the enormous Rensselaer manor, including Adriaen van der Donck and Cornelius Maessen van Buren – whose progeny would leave a lasting impact on the region. Still short of labor, the Rensselaers began importing African slaves.

Director-General Minuit faced growing allegations of bungling management and rampant corruption. In 1632, suspecting Minuit of colluding with illegal fur traders to pilfer the firm’s profits, the Dutch West India Company unceremoniously removed him from office. The embittered Minuit would soon return to the region – as a colonial rival. Rensselaer used his standing in the company to install his nephew as the new director-general, Wouter van Twiller. Fond of booze, Twiller was often seen drunk in the streets of New Amsterdam, once chasing the city’s only Protestant minister with a sword. In one display of Dutch courage, he fired Fort Amsterdam’s cannons in the middle of the night and set fire to a house below the bulwarks.

Beyond Rensselaerwyck and Fort Orange, the northeastern reaches of New Netherland remained the domain of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois traced their union back centuries to legendary unifiers called Deganawida – The Great Peacemaker – and Hiawatha, who convinced five warring tribes to bury the hatchet. Throughout the 17th century, French attempts to expand the beaver fur trade south of the St Lawrence were thwarted by the Iroquois Confederacy, whom they early dubbed the Bad Iroquois. The early Dutch, meanwhile, often referred to the confederacy as the “Sinnikens,” from a tribal name that had first appeared on Adriaen Block’s 1614 map. Block, however, never met any of the tribes in the confederacy.

In December 1634 three Dutchmen set out from Fort Orange toward the heart of Iroquois territory – hoping to wrest the fur trade from French interlopers. Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, a barber-surgeon by profession, led the perilous trek across snowbound wilderness west of the Hudson. After crossing one stream covered in chunks of ice, Bogaert reported, “Had one of us fallen, it would have been the end.” The Dutch trio was warmly welcomed into a series of palisaded Iroquois villages, so large and imposing that Bogaert referred to them as “castles.” Indeed, the confederated tribes called themselves the “People of the Longhouse”, both for the size of their communal houses – sometimes 300 feet in length – and for the suggestion of diverse peoples co-existing under one roof.

Thronged by curious villagers, the Dutch were treated to feasts, introduced to pet bears, and exposed to Iroquoian exorcisms and healing rituals. The barber-surgeon van den Bogaert was struck by the curious practices of Indian medicine men, who thrust sticks down their own throats to vomit over the heads and bodies of their patients. After negotiating terms of trade for furs, Bogaert was treated to an Indian chant, which he did his best to transcribe: ha assironi atsimachkoo kent oyakaying wee onneyatte onaondage koyockwe hoo senoto wanyagweganne hoo schenehalaton kasten kanosoni

Consequently Bogaert provided the first complete list of all five tribes in the Iroquois Confederacy. The term “oyakaying wee” was the Indian name for a tribe that Bogaert had elsewhere referred to as the “Maquasen.” English colonists, newly arrived in the region, reported another name for the same tribe, “Mohowawogs.” This Algonquian name, given to the Iroquois by their enemies, meaning cannibal monsters, hints at the tribe’s bloodthirsty reputation. Fielding thousands of warriors, most of whom entered battle with their heads shaven save a central strip of hair, the tribe presented a terrifying sight to their combatants. And indeed the tribe often cannibalized enemy warriors. The English version of their name ultimately prevailed in colonial records as MOHAWK, affixed to the Hudson’s longest tributary.

The four names following Mohawk in the chant recorded by Bogaert did prevail, albeit under alternate spellings. Continuing east to west, “onneyatte” were the ONEIDA; “onaondage” were the ONONDAGA; “koyockwe” were the CAYUGA; “senoto” were the SENECA. These ancient tribal names soon appeared on maps attached to the principal settlements and largest lakes in each tribe’s territory. The Seneca, however, built their Chosen Settlement on another large lake west of Lake Seneca, called CANANDAIGUA.

Translated into English, the Iroquoian chant most likely commemorated Bogaert’s skills as a surgeon and negotiator: This white man is a magician. He has leave to go around to all the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, and lie down safely among them. This is a useful thing for the Iroquois league.

Bogaert secured an agreement with the Iroquois to supply the Dutch with furs and retreated to Fort Orange. For the next decade he remained on friendly terms with the Iroquois Confederacy and often sought solace among them. Caught sodomizing his servant, a crime punishable by death under Dutch law, Bogaert fled to the Mohawks. Captured by the Dutch, he escaped again before the trial. Fleeing toward the Iroquois in the depths of winter, he fell into a frozen river and drowned.

Bogaert left posterity a vocabulary of Mohawk words, including a term for Frenchmen or Englishmen – “Aderondackx.” The Iroquois term apparently signified tree eaters or bark eaters, perhaps referring to any enemy whom the Mohawks had driven from their homes into bitter, starving conditions, where they were reduced to eating tree bark. Indeed, the Mohawks drove at least one band of Algonquian Indians into the harsh mountain wilderness of the ADIRONDACKS.

Pragmatic Dutch officials maintained military and economic alliances with the Iroquois Confederacy. Much to French dismay, Dutch traders provided Iroquois warriors with European firearms in exchange for furs. Armed with modern weaponry, the Iroquois Confederacy prevailed over neighboring tribes in the Iroquois Wars – otherwise known as the Beaver Wars – and monopolized the regional fur trade. And by playing the colonial powers off against each other, the People of the Longhouse preserved their independence: the Dutch, the French, and the English were all forced to recognize the supremacy of each tribe on its lands, ascribing to each a permanent place on the maps.