Caughnawaga Indian Village Site (also known as the Veeder site) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

located just west of Fonda in

Montgomery County, New York Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,532. The county seat is Fonda. The county was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1 ...

. It is the location of a 17th-century

Mohawk nation The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the ...

village. One of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois League, or ''

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

'', the Mohawk lived west of Albany and occupied much of the Mohawk Valley. Other Iroquois nations were located west of them and south of the Great Lakes. The Mohawk had trading relationships with French colonists coming south from Quebec, with Dutch based in Albany, and with the later English who took over Dutch territory. Under pressure from the French in the late 17th century, some Mohawk moved to other areas. Some who had converted to Catholicism relocated to mission villages near Montreal and to the west along the St. Lawrence River. Because most of the Mohawk in the New York and Pennsylvania areas were allied with Great Britain during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, they were mostly forced out of New York when Britain ceded its territory in the colonies to the new United States. The Crown provided some land in compensation at what became the Six Nations Reserve of the Grand River,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. This former village site was discovered in 1950 by Rev. Thomas Grassmann. It is the only Mohawk village site in the country to have been completely excavated for archeological studies.

Description

The Mohawk village site has been marked with stakes to show the outlines of the 12

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

s and

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

that existed there 300 years ago. The entire site is open to the public. People may walk around the former village and see the foundations of the Caughnawaga

s and the layout. The site is on a hill. The archeological site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973. It is on the grounds of the Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine & Historic Site, a ministry dedicated to Kateri Tekakwitha, who was canonized in 2012 as the first Native North American

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

in the Roman Catholic Church. Nearby on the Shrine grounds is the Mohawk-Caughnawaga Museum, which includes artifacts found at the dig site. The name Caughnawaga is derived from the Mohawk word ''kahnawà:ke'', meaning "place of the rapids", referring to the nearby rapids of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

. The site is also known as Indian Castle, or ''Gandaouage;'' or ''Kachnawage'' in Mohawk, meaning "castle" or "fortified place." This village with its defensive palisade was the Native American form of a castle. The site is on the north side of the Mohawk River and is also close to a natural spring.

History

Caughnawaga was occupied by the Mohawk from at least 1666 to 1693. French

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

established a mission there, which operated for about 10 years ranging from 1668 to 1679. They taught some of the Mohawk to read and write in French, as well as teaching them about Christianity. Historians now believe that the village known as "Caughnawaga" was located upstream at the "Fox Farm site" until 1679, at which time it moved to this location. Archeologist Dean Snow estimates the village had a population of around 300 people. This was fewer than had lived at the Fox Farm site. By 1679 some Catholic Mohawk had migrated to a mission village,

Kahnawake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, across from Montreal. Establi ...

, south of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

along the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

. That village is now one of several Mohawk reserves in Canada. The Caughnawaga site in New York is now a center for recreation and culture.

Gallery

Image:Caughnawaga2.jpg, Interpretive sign for Caughnawaga site

References

External links

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine & Historic Site
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Iroquois populated places Former Native American populated places in New York (state) Mohawk Native American history of New York (state) Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, New York Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, New York

Description

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links