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The Sagamores' Grandmother Lucy Made Collars and Sold Them in Troy |
The following was contributed to the Rensselaer County, NY GenWeb site by Etaoqua. It concerns the presence in the area of Native Americans after 1754, and it describes in particular Lucy (c1870-1953), who made collars and sold them in Troy.
There are many Native Americans who have not left the NY state area.
Contrary to popular opinion, it has been passed down among Mahicans that we
originated from a homeland which is now gone beneath the waves and originally
settled at the mouth of the Muhheakannituck [Hudson River], so named because it was
like the river around which we formerly dwelt.
Through the millennia, we have, of course, spread out along the entire length of the
Muhheakannituck and to other nearby waterways.
Not much is known about us because we are the "wild ones" and have been hiding
"right out in the open". We adopted this as a means of survival because of events,
such as the Pavonia Massacre [near present-day Jersey City, NJ, leading to New
Amsterdam Governor Kieft's War, 1643-1645] and King Philip's War [in New England, 1675-1676], and
because of the general attitude of the Owanis.
The Sagamores' grandmother Lucy made collars, among other things, as did her
grandmother and other family members. They sold these collars in Troy.
Lucy made collars for her sons and grandsons with stories beaded into them as
part of their regalia. Lucy was born around 1870 and walked on in 1953.
She lived in Manhattan, just north of Central Park, from the 1920s until her death
in 1953. Family members still live in the same residence today.
Lucy's many descendants live mostly in the triangle formed by the Greater New York
Metropolitan area, Syracuse, and Hartford, with a few living in central New Jersey,
Florida, California, Oregon and Germany.
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Lin Van Buren