If you can read only one book on the Iroquois, read this one: “Iroquoia.” Published in 2003 by Syracuse University Press, this book is both readable and full of facts. Moreover, it is enjoyable and is actually hard to put down. In many books the authors just make statements and the readers are left to wonder where the information came from. Not so here. Author William “Bill” Engelbrecht cites his sources and provides 30 pages of references. Plus, he furnishes a 17 page index which is truly comprehensive for a 232 page book. Most of the books I read force me to enhance their stingy indexes -- not this one. This is one beautiful book!
Doctor Engelbrecht is a professor emeritus at Buffalo State College. He retired in 2003, after teaching archaeology for 30 years. He is a Fellow of the New York State Archaeological Association (NYSAA) and currently serves as its president. He is also a trustee of the Buffalo chapter. He has many publications in a variety of respected archaeological journals.
Bill is currently working on the Eaton site in Erie County, Town of West Seneca. This is an Iroquoian site dated around 1550 AD. It contains no Euro-American material, indicating that it is indeed pre-historic, as befits the date. It is pure Native American uncorrupted by European influences.
The difference between Iroquois and Iroquoian is one of inclusion. The Iroquois was a federation of five Iroquoian tribes: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. The Tuscarora were brought in after contact with the Euro-Americans. The Iroquoian population included the Iroquois and other tribes which spoke languages in the same linguistic family. These included: Erie, Neutral, Huron, Wenro, and Petun in the west-northwest; Allegheny Valley and Susquehannock along the southern tier, and tribes in Jefferson County, Northern Vermont, and along the Saint Lawrence River in the northeast.
Professor Engelbrecht and his students have been excavating the Eaton site for 17 years and he has assembled a database of their findings. On Thursday evening, Oct. 4, at the meeting of our Chapter of the NYSAA in the Chenango County Historical Society Museum in Norwich, Bill will be telling us about the results of his important work. His talk is open to the public and we encourage anyone with an interest in Native Americans to attend. His book will be available for purchase. Our business meeting begins at 7:30; Doctor Engelbrecht’s talk will start around 7:50.