The Story of Socquans and the Trading Post
The Van Corlaer Trading Post project is an archaeological investigation of the ruins of a house located in White Creek, New York. The house may was built between 1709 and 1711 by Arendt Van Corlaer for the Mahican Sachem Socquons, also known as the Owl.
In 1982, gravel was excavated from the side of the small plateau that sits on the floodplain of the Owl Kill Creek near the Washington and Rensselaer County line in Eastern New York. A large amount of Native American artifacts were unearthed from the mining process and amateur archaeologists assumed it was a Native American burial mound (Shields 1982). Archaeologists from the State of New York and the University of Albany were called in to investigate the claim. They concluded that the likelihood of this site being a burial mound was unlikely due to its size. The date range of the artifacts unearthed by the gravel mining process were estimated to be between 1,000 - 3,000 BCE. This represents the Late Archaic time period for Native American history in the Northeastern United States. The artifacts that were collected were donated to the Onondaga Nation School in Lafayette, New York.
The area where this took place has been occupied by Native Americans for at least 8,000 years, as determined by a series of archaeological investigations. Most recently, the land within Washington and Rensselaer Counties was home to the Mahican people, whose ancestral lands existed between the Hudson river and into the eastern parts of New England. The indigenous people who resided in the area bordering the Hoosic, Walloomsac, and Hudson Rivers were known to the Dutch colonists as the “River Indians”. They were Algonquian speaking people who consisted of many smaller tribes which included the Mahikanders, Hoosac, and Scatekook. Today, descendants of these people are part of the Mahican, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Schaghticoke Nations. Located near the area where the artifacts were accidentally unearthed was a place known as Socquon’s Garden or Socquon’s Castle, which is a reference to a cornfield and a village that was overseen by a spiritual leader of the Hoosac people who lived near the confluence of the Owl Kill Creek and the Hoosic and Walloomsac rivers. European settlers often referred to Mahican villages as “castles”, which were a grouping of wigwams or longhouses surrounded by a log palisade. The area was also known as Tiashoke, which may mean “log over river”, the river being the Hoosic River.
Socquon was believed to be born after 1600 CE and is also known as Soquan or Sacquans in historical records. He was known as The Owl, an orator or prophet for his people and held great power within his tribe. The Owl Creek itself is believed to be named for him. In 1707, the Albany City Council agreed to pay for the construction of a fence to surround twelve acres of land which they called Socquon’s Garden, in order to keep out livestock from the Dutch settlers who were farming nearby in what is today known as North Hoosick, New York. The European settlement of that area was located on the eastern side of the rivers, which suggests that the location of Socquon’s garden was also somewhere on the eastern floodplain of the Owl Kill and the Hoosic River. The earliest mention of Socquon in historical records occurs in August of 1700 when he met with Earl Richard Bellemont, Governor of New York and representative for Queen Anne of England. Socquon spoke to Robert Livingston, the Secretary for Indian Affairs who refers to Socquon as the Sachem of the River Indians.There are at least four speeches made by Socquon which were recorded by Robert Livingtston (Ruttenber 1872:183-186). In one of his addresses to the English in Albany, Socquon speaks about the year 1676 when the Witenagemot Oak, also known as the Peace Tree was planted near the confluence of the Hooisc and Tomahannac Creek near the Hudson river. The term Witenagemot is derived from the Old English phrase for, “council of the wise”.
This area was known as Skateecook (today known as Schagticoke, NY) and was set aside by the English and Dutch as settlement for the Mahicans and other tribes from Eastern New England. A copy of Socquon’s speech is shown in Appendix A. At the place where the tree was planted peace between the Haudensanee, Hoosacs, and Governor Andros of Albany was made, which was known as the Covenant Chain. During this time competition and war existed between the Mohawk tribe of the Haudensaunee and the Mahicans. The peace between the warring tribes was made at Schaghticoke, where many displaced tribes were living, and a tree was planted in honor of the peace treaty. The tree became known as the Witenagemot Oak and the land surrounding it as the Vale of Peace.
In 1703, Rober Livingston, Secretary of Indian affairs for Queen Anne of England in New York sent a minister to Scateecook, and provided funds to construct a palisaded fort and chapel there. On February 28, 1707 the city of Albany used its power to acquire the land known as the Schaacatogue Tract, which included the area where the Hoosac Indians were living. The mayor of Albany, David Schuyler, purchased the land which consisted of 36 square miles from Socquon for the payment of "two blankets, two coats, twenty shirts, two guns, twelve pounds of powder, eight gallons of rum, two casks of beer, two rolls of tobacco, Madeira wine, gin, etc.” The deed to this tract—"2 by 2 by 12 by 14 miles in extent”. At the same time Sacquon also sold adjacent land in Scatekook to Herman Jansen Knickerbocker who settled there. The Knickerbocker family eventually built a mansion near the site of the Tree of Peace, which is still there today. A trading post was built for Socquon as part of the land sale. Arendt Van Corlaer constructed a small timber frame structure to be used by Socquon as a house and trading post to convey the sale of furs from the Mahicans to the English and Dutch traders. This house was intact until around 1996 and is known today as the Van Corlaer Trading Post.
Located inside the building was an inscription made by Socquon into a beam above the fireplace. A photograph was taken of the inscription in 1996 by Shirley W. Dunne, a historian and writer. The meaning of the inscription is unknown, but it does in some ways resemble an owl or bird. Richard Wheeler, an architectural historian believes it may be a palimpsest, which is a series of words or letters laid over one another. It also has been identified as a Wakon Bird symbol, which was important to Native American spiritual beliefs. A Wakon Bird inscription was also rumored to be inscribed into the top of a wooden gate at the entrance of the Knickerbocker Mansion in Schaghticoke. The inscription was in the house above the fireplace until sometime around 1998. After that, the house was in disrepair and taken down. The fate of the beam with Socquon’s inscription is unclear.
The discovery of the artifacts during the gravel excavation may be related to Socquon’s Castle. The plateau would be a logical place to establish a palisaded village, as it sits above the floodplain near the confluence of the Owl Kill and the Hoosic River. This was also near the area near where The Owl’s ceremonial garden may have been located. The plateau is approximately eight acres and rises ten feet above the floodplain, making it a tall island of land overlooking the banks of the Owl Kill creek. Could this be the village that Sacquon grew up in and eventually led? This area has multiple archaeological sites, including one that was identified as a garden .
Socquon purportedly facilitated a fur trade business between his fellow Mahicans with Arendt Van Corlaer III, a Dutch fur trader. Corlaer was the grandson of Arendt Corlaer, who founded the city of Schenectady, ran the fur trade out of Fort Orange at Albany, and negotiated with the indigenous people, who respected him. Because of Van Corlaer’s relation with the indigenous people, the Mahicans referred to all governors of New York as Corlaer. His grandson, Arendt the 3rd, along with Adam Vrooman bought furs from Socquon and also eventually purchased the land near his castle along the Owl Kill. Socquon is believed to have died sometime around 1711. After his death, Arendt Van Corlaer and his brother-in-Law Nicholas Lake took over the land and the trading post. Van Corlaer and Vrooman sold their furs in New Jersey, to avoid paying the fur taxes imposed by Albany. They conveyed their furs via boat down the Hudson, and up the Raritan River in New Jersey to New Brunswick. It was in New Jersey that Van Corlaer met his wife Mary Lake. The two married and moved to the settlement known as St. Croick, which is today known as North Hoosick, NY. This is the area just south of the plateau in question.
Further analysis of the artifacts unearthed from the plateau may reveal the history of the place and its association with the Mahicans and with Socquans.
References
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