Of Maize and Furs and Bloodshed. In a Cornfield, Knickerbocker Road, Pittsford, New York, USA
Sweet Corn or Maize (originally 'mahiz' in the Taino language of the Caribbean Islands) was an important staple foodstuff for the Seneca Nation of native Americans. The Seneca had lived in the Pittsford-Victor area in Upstate New York for hundreds of years. They tilled the land, fought occasionally, hunted, trapped, and lived a generally good life. Not without reason, they called their lands Pleasant Valley.
But in the sixteenth century the French laid claim to what they called Nouvelle-France. Soon peace was a mere memory. The native Americans stood in the way of making of the new French colony a profitable undertaking. Especially central for this was the struggle over the fur trade.
Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville (1637-1710), Governor General of Nouvelle-France from 1685-1689, decided to put an end once and for all to the 'encroachment' of the 'Indians' on fur economics. In 1687 his army crossed Lake Ontario from Montréal, to wreak devastation on the Seneca. They destroyed their way through the area where later would arise the village of Pittsford. About 15 miles south-southeast on a hill near today's Victor, New York, shone proudly the major Seneca town of Ganonagan. A fierce battle ensued. Denonville's forces were driven away by the Seneca, but Ganonagan was largely burnt down and its denizens fled, building smaller villages in a wide area around. Denonville's forces retreated back to what is today Canada, again via Pittsford.
It wasn't until the end of the eighteenth century that pioneers from the American eastern seaboard settled in the Northfield-Pittsford area. Especially at first, they must have endured a hard life of hunting, trapping and some farming in very cold winters and hot, mosquito-infested summers. But soon there were families, and schools and churches were built. A modicum of prosperity came with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
But it's the corn - the maize - on Knickerbocker Hill that carries memories back to older times, to what Dutch settlers and traders had called the 'Sinnikens' of Ganonagan.
Of Maize and Furs and Bloodshed. In a Cornfield, Knickerbocker Road, Pittsford, New York, USA
Sweet Corn or Maize (originally 'mahiz' in the Taino language of the Caribbean Islands) was an important staple foodstuff for the Seneca Nation of native Americans. The Seneca had lived in the Pittsford-Victor area in Upstate New York for hundreds of years. They tilled the land, fought occasionally, hunted, trapped, and lived a generally good life. Not without reason, they called their lands Pleasant Valley.
But in the sixteenth century the French laid claim to what they called Nouvelle-France. Soon peace was a mere memory. The native Americans stood in the way of making of the new French colony a profitable undertaking. Especially central for this was the struggle over the fur trade.
Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville (1637-1710), Governor General of Nouvelle-France from 1685-1689, decided to put an end once and for all to the 'encroachment' of the 'Indians' on fur economics. In 1687 his army crossed Lake Ontario from Montréal, to wreak devastation on the Seneca. They destroyed their way through the area where later would arise the village of Pittsford. About 15 miles south-southeast on a hill near today's Victor, New York, shone proudly the major Seneca town of Ganonagan. A fierce battle ensued. Denonville's forces were driven away by the Seneca, but Ganonagan was largely burnt down and its denizens fled, building smaller villages in a wide area around. Denonville's forces retreated back to what is today Canada, again via Pittsford.
It wasn't until the end of the eighteenth century that pioneers from the American eastern seaboard settled in the Northfield-Pittsford area. Especially at first, they must have endured a hard life of hunting, trapping and some farming in very cold winters and hot, mosquito-infested summers. But soon there were families, and schools and churches were built. A modicum of prosperity came with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
But it's the corn - the maize - on Knickerbocker Hill that carries memories back to older times, to what Dutch settlers and traders had called the 'Sinnikens' of Ganonagan.