Traces of Indigenous activity in Hudson Highlands

HUDSON HIGHLANDS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The New York State Museum's Cultural Resource Survey Program began this year's field season in the Hudson Highlands, near Manitou Mountain. According to the New York State Museum, archeologists from the program found traces of Indigenous activity within the surveyed area between 500 and 1,000 years old.

The state museum says the area surveyed is within the traditional homeland of the Muh-he-conneok, the People of the Waters That Are Never Still, now the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians. Along with traces of Indigenous activity, a light scatter of quartz and chert flakes was found. The New York State Museum says these flakes were produced during stone tool manufacture or resharpening.

While traces of Indigenous activity was found, the museum says only durable materials like stone and fired clay pottery would last in the region's sandy, acidic soils. Due to that, a full understanding of the activity at the site is still beyond reach.