
Photo taken at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, NY. It’s an interesting museum, a weird blend of modern art and ancient artifacts from the natives that lived and do live in New York State. Some of the stuff is beautiful, like the carvings of animals made from moose and deer antlers or lovely rustic log furniture. Others is a little strange, emphasizing the pagan roots of the Iroquois nation from long ago. I am all for preserving history but I am not fond of the emphasis on paganism. Errors and myths of the past are best left in the past. We can learn from history, to be sure. Do people really still believe that the earth sits on the back of a turtle?
Anyway, the museum is a good history lesson and the lady who is in charge of the place is amazingly friendly and outgoing. It was odd, seeing such a “cultural” establishment in the middle of the lonely forests and hills of New York’s lovely outback, Schoharie County.
I learned a lot while there. The arrowheads, for example. Now that I think about it, OH YEAH of course you can date the tribes by the shapes they cut arrowheads. But I guess I never thought about it until I visited the museum. The most ancient arrowhead (and therefore, tribe) appears to be the “Clovis” group as you can see in the photo. However, I watched a brief video at the museum about Indian archaeology and some suspect that there is an even older group that predates Clovis. Interesting!