's lot. After the land was ploughed we found many arrow-heads,
awls of bone and flint, and fragments of pottery. There were several
areas where fires had been located, the soil being well baked, with
mingled charcoal and burned bones. There were also about the fire sites
fragments of deer horn, bears' teeth, and much broken pottery. Spear
heads were rather few, sinkers and hammer-stones more numerous. I never
found any perfect axes, but did find fragments."
The great number of imperfect arrow-heads and flint chips found here, as
well as on the flat northeast of Iroquois Farm house, and on the low
land between the O-te-sa-ga and the Country Club house, shows the
frequent occupation of these places as Indian camps.
[Illustration: THE OTSEGO IROQUOIS PIPE
(Seven-tenths actual size)]
In 1916 David R. Dorn conducted a more intensive examination of the plot
explored by Dr. White and Dr. Ferguson. His investigation revealed a
site that showed two distinct layers of Indian relics, the lower and
more ancient being of Algonquin type, while the signs of later occupancy
were Iroquois. At about eighteen inches beneath the surface was found
the complete skeleton of an Iroquois Indian. With the skeleton was
unearthed a pipe, of Iroquois manufacture, which Arthur C. Parker, the
State archeologist, declared to be one of the most perfect specimens
known.
Taking all the evidence together, it may be asserted that the present
site of Cooperstown was from ancient times the resort of Indian hunters
and fishermen, and at a later period, more than a generation before its
settlement by white men, as indicated by the size of the apple trees
which they found, included a settled Indian village.
On Morgan's map of Iroquois territory as it existed in 1720, he shows a
village at the foot of Otsego Lake to which he gives the Indian name
Ote-sa-ga.[7] Our present form, Otsego, is a variant of the same
original. Morgan wrote the word in three syllables, adding the letter
"e" after the "t" merely to make sure that the "o" should be pronounced
long. It seems certain that Morgan never pronounced the word as
"O-te-sa-ga." This form of the name, however, when the third syllable
carries the accent and a broad "a," is defensible on the ground of its
majestic euphony, for it should be permitted to take some liberties with
a name that has been spelled by high authorities in a dozen different
ways.
The explanation of Otsego, or Otesaga, as signifyin
|