History of New York - Prehistory

Prehistory

The first peoples of New York are estimated to have arrived around 10,000 BC. Around 800 AD, Iroquois ancestors moved into the area from the Appalachian region. The people of the Point Peninsula Complex, were the predecessors of the Algonquian peoples of New York. By around 1100, the distinct Iroquoian and Algonquian cultures that would eventually be encountered by Europeans had developed. The Iroquois were the most notable New York Indians; they used their dominance over the fur trade as a bargaining chip with Europeans, while other New York tribes were typically at the mercy of either European destruction or assimilation within the Iroquoian confederacy. Algonquian tribes were less united with neighboring peoples and typically lived along rivers, streams, or the Atlantic Coast. Despite European beliefs at the time, the natives were well-established peoples with sophisticated cultural systems. The natives had "a complex and elaborate native economy that included hunting, gathering, manufacturing, and farming... a mosaic of Native American tribes, nations, languages, and political associations."