Indigenous People: A Beginning of Wealth
“Without the river, there would be no story.”
--Margaret Schram, Hudson’s Merchants & Whalers: The Rise and Fall of a River Port
from Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York by Evan T. Pritchard
The Muh-he-conneok, the Peoples of the Waters that Are Never Still, were known for making their homes near rivers where they would have food, water, and transportation. They were able to fish the large sturgeon and shad that were in abundance in the Hudson River, hunt deer and other game, and grow crops in the rich soil of the Hudson Valley. They traveled in canoes up and down the river, trading just as the Dutch and the Proprietors did after them, and they wore paths north to present day Albany and east into modern day Massachusetts to visit and trade with other clans. The waterway trading and the footpaths were continued and built upon by those who displaced them.
The Mohican people of this area, today known as the Stockbridge-Munsee band of the Mohicans and now located in Wisconsin, once inhabited the land of present day Hudson and, in fact, the entire Hudson Valley and beyond from 25,000 BP until the mid 1780s when, in numbers already greatly reduced through disease and ill treatment by the colonists, left the area as settlers further encroached on their land.
Colonists Learned from Indigenous Groups
Contrary to what some people think when they learn that Hudson was a whaling town, there were no whales that swam up the Hudson River. And, no, the whales were not dragged up the river by the whaling ships. Whales were hunted in the deep waters of the oceans before they were processed on board the ships.
However, once upon a time, whales were abundant near shore areas, including in New York Harbor. And many indigenous tribes near the seashore took advantage of this. In 1659 when a group of mostly Quakers moved to the island of Nantucket, they were taught the practice of drift whaling (“harvesting” whales as they were beached or came close to shore) by the indigenous tribe, the Wampanoag. Similar cultural exchange occurred on Long Island and throughout settlements along the shores of New England. When the Nantucketers began going out to sea the majority of the crews were Wampanoag. Their expertise and labor helped to build the wealth of these colonists.
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Additional Resource (links to PDF):
Munsee Fisherman, Len Tantillo
Four native fishermen land a large 250 pound sturgeon using a fish trap after a day-long struggle.
City of Hudson Collection, Hudson Area Library History Room, Hudson, NY
Dead Whale Washed Up on the Beach based on the original by Jan Saenredam, ca. 1598
Whaling and Maritime Commerce Collection, Hudson Area Library History Room, Hudson, NY