Mapping Minisink: An Ambiguous Center in New Netherland

Author(s): Marian E Leech

Year: 2022

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "More than Pots and Pipes: New Netherland and a World Made by Trade" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper explores the many meanings of Minisink, a Munsee region stretching from the Delaware Water Gap to Port Jervis, New York. Usually thought to mean "at the island," Minisink was a major Native center since at least the start of the Late Woodland Period and well into the mid-eighteenth century. The region has been intensively studied by archaeologists and continues to be an important place for descendant communities, who may identify as Munsee, Lenape, or Delaware. Yet historians working with written sources from the seventeenth century have practically left Minisink off the map entirely. Drawing from archaeological data, archival maps, and oral histories, I center Minisink within European accounts from the seventeenth century. Told together, the analogous but entangled histories of Minisink and New Netherland reveal the fragility of colonial claims, the imbalance of power and possession during the early colonial era, and the enduring significance of Native space.

Cite this Record

Mapping Minisink: An Ambiguous Center in New Netherland. Marian E Leech. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Philadelphia, PA. 2022 ( tDAR id: 469427)

Keywords

General
Colonialism Dutch Munsee

Geographic Keywords
Mid-Atlantic

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology