Chapter 18 - Recreation
Sightseeing / Auto Tours
Not all discovery trips are made on foot or in a canoe. Many are made
by driving the highways and byways of the Mohawk Valley. In the KUYAHOORA
book I provided road tours of West Canada Valley, noting interesting
places along the way. I plan to do the same in the Mohawk Valley book.
To begin the process of gathering information for the final version of
the book, I've created this section of the Book-In-Progress.
Worth A Visit
will highlight places to visit in the Mohawk Valley and like the rest of
this Book-In-Progress, order and organization will sometimes seem haphazard.
That's because some of my discovery trips are not made in geographical
order. They are made because they tie in with on-going research or simply
because going there seemed like a good idea at the time.
Usually my wife, Gert accompanies me on these trips.
She much prefers a comfortable ride in an air-conditioned car to the heat
and bugs of a hike or canoeing trip. I suspect some of you feel the same.
Indeed, sometimes I feel the same.
Discovery: Noteworthy Indian Museum
July 11, 2000 Rain showers
Bryant
Miller told me about the Noteworthy Indian Museum when I interviewed him
at his home in Fort Hunter a couple of years ago. At the time Bryant was
81 years old and still an avid student of the history of the Mohawk Indians.
When I asked him how I could learn the location of the many Mohawk village
sites, he suggested the Indian Museum in Amsterdam. I recently visited
the museum and was very impressed.
Gert and I arrived at the museum when it opened
at 11 a.m. and were met at the door by Ed Bancroft. Ed is a local schoolteacher
and "card carrying Archaeologist" who volunteers to greet visitors
and conduct tours once a week. Ed provided a brief introduction to the
museum, told us to look around and that he would be available to answer
questions.
This Mohawk Hunter and Map of Village Sites in the Central Mohawk Valley are just a couple of the many displays in the Noteworthy Indian Museum.
Although we didn't stay more than an hour, it was
enough time to appreciate that this museum is a treasure of information
for anyone interested in the history of the earliest inhabitants of the
Mohawk Valley and the Mohawk Indian Nation. I was especially impressed
with the life size diorama of a Mohawk Hunter and with the map of the location
of the many Indian village sites in the central area of the Mohawk Valley.
I was elated to learn that this map was based on information gathered by
Dean Snow. I've read a number of Dean's books and correspond with him often
regarding the early history of the Mohawk Valley.
I plan to return to the museum in the near future
to continue my research on the Mohawk Indians and to gather more information
about the fascinating history of the museum itself. If you have the
opportunity visit the museum this summer, please do so because it's closed
the rest of the year.
The Noteworthy Indian Museum is located right in
Amsterdam just east of Route 30 on Route 67, on the corner of Prospect
and Church Streets. You will most likely see the stone building (with sign)
that houses the museum before you see the street signs. Route 5 and 5S
intersect Route 30, and Amsterdam's Exit 27 of the NYS Thruway is only
a mile from the museum. Except for the slightly confusing intersections
in Amsterdam it's easy to find.
For more information about the museum and a map
to its location, take a look at the museum's website at http://www.greatturtle.net/index.html
Follow the path of this discovery trip by clicking on Mohawk
Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Amsterdam, select New York, press GO!
Select
Amsterdam.
Discovery: Auriesville Shrine -
In the 1630s the People of the Place of the Crystals were in turmoil.
After two decades of acquiring wealth and power through trading alliances
with the Dutch at Fort Orange (Albany), they were ravaged by an unbelievably
deadly enemy. An enemy brought to their valley by the children of Dutch
settlers. Smallpox!
This disease wreaked havoc on the Mohawk Nation
with a series of epidemics that killed 60 percent of their population.
Disease-ravaged villages were abandoned, families torn apart, new villages
built and new families created from surviving adults and children. The
once populous nation of over 7,000 living in four large villages was reduced
to less than 3,000 living in three smaller villages.
Despite the loss of hundreds of warriors, the Mohawks
continued to guard the eastern door of the Iroquois Federation, and attack
their Mohican neighbors to the East and the Algonquins and French in the
St. Lawrence Valley. Their fierceness in battle and cruelty to captors
was legendary.
During one of their forays into the St. Lawrence Valley in the 1640s,
a band of Mohawks captured Jesuit priest Isaac Joques and Jesuit brother,
Renè Goupil, and brought them to the village of Ossernenon in the
Mohawk Valley. They were subjected to tortures and mutilations that included
having their fingernails pulled out and fingers bitten off. Despite such
treatment these Jesuits continued to administer the word of God to the
Mohawk people.
This painting at the Museum at Auriesville Shrine depicts Mohawk warriors torturing Jesuit Priest Isaac Joques by pulling out his fingernails and cutting off his fingers with their teeth.
On Sept 29, 1642 Rene Goupil was tomahawked to death.
With the help of the Dutch at Fort Orange, Issac Joques escaped and returned
to France. His devotion to converting the Mohawks was so great that he
returned to Ossernenon a few years later accompanied by Jesuit lay missioner,
John LaLande. Joques and LaLande were blamed for a recent epidemic and
killed on October 18 and 19 respectively.
In recognition of their supreme sacrifice, the National
Shrine of the North American Martyrs was initiated in 1885. A wooden cross
and a tiny chapel were erected on 10 acres of land that was thought to
be the sight of the Mohawk Village where Joques, Goupil and LaLande were
killed. Recent archaeological evidence indicates that the 1640s village
of Ossernenon was actually in another location in this general area.
In addition to the Martyrs, the life of Kateri Tekakwitha,
the Lily of the Mohawks, is also celebrated at the Shrine. Kateri was born
in 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, the daughter of a Christian
Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk Chief. Her parents died during
a smallpox epidemic when she was four years old.
Kateri and relatives who survived the epidemic moved
to the village of Caughnawaga (now Fonda) on the north side of the river
where, in 1667, she was introduced to Catholicism. In 1676, at age
20, she was baptized and devoted the remainder of her very short life to
teaching prayers to children and helping the sick and aged. She died on
April 17th, 1680 at 24 years of age. On January 3, 1943, she was declared
Venerable by Pope Pius XII, and Beautified by Pope John Paul II on June
30, 1980. It is expected that Kateri Tekakwitha will be declared a Saint
in the very near future.
Today the Auriesville Shrine consists of some 600
acres of land, buildings and facilities located on a hilltop overlooking
the Mohawk Valley.
July 23, 2001, Hot, Humid, Sunny.
Gert
and I arrived at the Auriesville Shrine late Monday morning after a pleasant
drive down Route 5S through the villages of Fort Plain, Canajoharie and
Fultonville. We stopped at the large parking lot off Noeltner Road to take
some photographs of the entrance to the Shrine. It was already hot
and muggy, so we drove onto the grounds and parked in a shaded spot not
far from the Kateri Center.
Crosses, trees and flowers abound at Auriesville Shrine.
Even on this hot and humid day it was comfortable
walking along flower-lined paths under stately hardwoods and evergreens.
For some two hours we followed shaded walkways to discover, among many
other points of interest, Kateri Center, an Open Air Chapel, a Museum,
the Stations of the Cross and the Coliseum.
The Coliseum is a huge round building that can seat
thousands of people, so it seemed almost empty when we walked in during
the conclusion of a late morning mass. In the center are four altars facing
outward. Only one altar was being used at the time, but it was easy to
imagine all four altars serving thousands of people celebrating a special
religious holiday or pilgrimage.
We left that afternoon with a new appreciation for
Auriesville Shrine and its unique role in the history of the Mohawk Valley.
Auriesville Shrine is located 3.5 miles east of Fultonville, and 5 miles west of Amsterdam on Route 5S.
For more information see:
http://www.martyrshrine.org/info/index.html
http://www.wyandot.org/jogues.htm
http://www.wyandot.org/goupil.htm
http://www.wyandot.org/lalande.htm
http://www.bluecloud.org/kateri.html
http://www.martyrshrine.org/info/index.html#directions
Follow the path of this discovery trip by clicking on Mohawk Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Auriesville Shrine, select New York, press GO!
