Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/230

 2l8 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920

Indians applied to the English town for "a gift of land on which to build a fort" [Trumbull, History of Northampton, vol. i, p. 176.] This was granted under certain rather stringent conditions, but there is no definite record as to the location of this later fort. Although some of the local historians seem to mix this up with the fort in the loop of the river of previous occupancy, there is good evidence that such was not the case, as this latter territory had already been apportioned to several English settlers. The most likely site for this later settlement was at the bend of the river west of Hadley, on the way to Hatfield, marked on the extreme north of the accompanying map as "Fort Plain." In any case this interval of Indian occupancy was of short duration, for at the outbreak of Philip's war in 1675 the Indian's withdrew from the entire region, never to return.

This, then, is the history of a definite Indian village, the one almost coincident with the first center of Northampton. Tradition- ally it consisted of a "fort" or palisade, which is said to have been on the bluff at the north-east end of the elevation, on grounds now owned by Mr. Frank Lyman. This location is a very sightly place, looking off towards the east with a long stretch of meadows, and Mts. Holyoke and Tom in full view. Almost at one's foot the original channel of the Mill river is distinctly visible, cutting off the village site from the plains below, and emptying finally into the side of the oldest ox-bow. Since, in this region at least, there are always to be expected in each Indian settlement three asso- ciated sites, the village, the corn planting grounds, and the burying ground, one is tempted a priori to make a guess as to the most probable location for the two last. Burying grounds hereabouts seem to show no fixed relationship to the village site, and their discovery is a matter of chance, bones being found by plowing or other excavation; but if any bones have ever been unearthed here their tradition has long been lost. That such has been the case is very probable, as South St., one of the most populous residence streets, runs lengthwise through the entire elevation, and, as this is also one of the oldest streets, any such bones would have been found early, when Indian bones were sufficiently frequent to have caused no special mention.

�� �