Chemung Valley Living History Center

Description

Prior to 1779, the Chemung River Valley and hills surrounding the park had been inhabited by Indians for thousands of years, most recently by the Iroquois. The Iroquois were living a settled agricultural existence supplemented by hunting and trade. Their six tribes had developed a sophisticated system of political, military and social alliance cemented by mandatory inter-clan marriage. Descent passed through women rather than men. The strength and stability of this system has been such that the Six Nations Confederacy of the Iroquois exists to this day. In August of 1779, the peace and tranquility of this forested hill was broken by the boom of cannons, the crack of musket fire, and the blood-curdling yells of Iroquois warriors. The Continental Army was engaged in battle with the British regulars, Loyalist rangers and 1000 Iroquois Indian warriors. The battle of Newtown was the decisive clash in one of the largest offensive campaigns of the American Revolution. George Washington had dispatched General John Sullivan with an army from Easton, Pennsylvania and General James Clinton with an army gathered at Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley, in what was to become known as the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign. This expedition has been commonly regarded as punishment to some tribes among the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy who had sided with the British in the war and had attacked frontier settlements...

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