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native americans of
plainsboro
Five hundred to thousands of years
ago, Plainsboro had a much different scenario than today.
It is archaeologically known that there was a small Native
American village situated in the Plainsboro area where Scudders
Mill turn-off ramp along Route 1 now exists. Many stone artifacts
were excavated there such as spear points, scrapers, celts,
axes and the remains of stone hearths that the Indians used
for cooking, providing light, and staying warm. This village
site existed during the Late Archaic Period (4,000 to 6,000
years ago).
Also, Native American stone artifacts
have been found over the years along the Millstone River
and its various tributaries. Native Americans lived along
the shores and backs of these waterways hunting, fishing,
and gathering, living in bark-covered shelters (wigwams) in
small spread-out clusters in the Millstone basin. The Millstone
River
along with its tributary streams of Devils Brook, Cedar Brook
and Cranberry Brook most likely served as the main direction
of travel for the Native Americans in the region
Native American paths were generally the
result of natural selection and the constant travel over certain routes.
Factors that could determine the course of a trail would be the fordability
of streams, village sites, and the selection of dry uplands. Because of the
frequent movement of the Native Americans and their village camps, these
paths became very distinctly defined. Most of the later early historic
stage-coach routes along with modern-day highways followed these Indian
trails.
New Jersey, during the period of the Native
Americans, was densely covered with forests with a mix of natural fields,
marshes, wetlands, and woods, and variety of game animals. These Native
Americans not only hunted and fished along the Millstone and its streams,
but also gathered wild plants for food and grew garden crops such as maize
(corn), pumpkins and beans. They made and repaired stone, bone, and wooden
tools; erected bark shelters; made clothes, boots, moccasins out of animal
skins; wove simple fabric, and later made pottery having intricate lines,
dentates, and sometimes geometric shapes for decoration. These later Native
Americans were known as the Lenape. There were many groups of Native
Americans that came before the Lenape presence; these various different
Indian peoples migrated from various areas of the southeast, west, and
north, taking up residency in what we call New Jersey. These different
groups stayed sometimes for thousands of years. These Native American
people did not have the material conveniences that we have today to enjoy a
more comfortable, predictable kind of lifestyle. The Native Americans had
to use all of their capabilities to continue a fairly consistent way of
life through hunting and gathering, building and repairing shelters,
migrating seasonally for better opportunities of game, resource areas of
stone for making tools, and finding regions of good soil to grow crops.
The Native American lives were precarious:
each day one had obstacles to face on the hunt, or gathering wild plant
food and tending gardens, cooking food, making tools, shelters, traps,
clothing, and interacting with other Native American groups in their
day-to-day quest to survive. Game and certain plants were not always
readily available in the nearby area, so one had to constantly seek out new
sources and establish resources of food and stone to exist. The Native
American's life was always confronted with decision making, uncertainty,
having to predict weather patterns, hunting strategies, area to live with
well-drained soil, shelter from the elements, both natural and constructed,
making their own clothes, especially to stay warm in the winter time, and
generally adapting to their surrounding environment each season.
The stone artifacts displayed in the museum
exhibit attest to the longevity of the survival of the Native
American in the Plainsboro area.
Opening up alternate Five Foot
squares Along US Route #1(Behind Snow fence)
Excavating The Day After The Spring
Blizzard In April 1982.
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