A PROPOSED SITE MUSEUM: ONONDAGA 16841696

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A PROPOSED SITE MUSEUM ONONDAGA 1684-1696

• BY
• PROFESSER ETHEL HOFFMAN FINE
• B. A. Syracuse University, 1957

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ABSTRACT OF THESIS

• Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
  requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
  Anthropology in the Graduate School of Syracuse
  University,
• January, 1962

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ABSTRACT

• This thesis is concerned with the problem of
  proposing an Onondaga County site museum devoted
  to the Iroquois Period. In Central New York the
  Seventeenth Century is considered as being the
  Iroquois Period because of an important role
  played by the Iroquois Confederacy. During that
  century the Iroquois were known to distant Indian
  groups, as well as to many nations of Europe,
  because of the Iroquois wars and the accounts of
  traders, missionaries, and soldiers. The Iroquois
  not only represent the culmination of
  approximately five thousand years of Indian
  occupation in Central New York, but the
  constitution of the League of the Five Nations
  represents the epitome of Woodland Democracy.

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Onondaga 1684-1696

• One aspect of this thesis is to suggest that the
  last major Iroquois capital city site, Onondaga
  1684-1696, could easily be developed into a well
  co-coordinated site museum program in Onondaga
  County. This capital site was selected in
  preference to other existing Iroquois sites
  because of at least three contributing factors.
  First, it is close to Syracuse University, where
  scholars and students could develop it as a
  research center. Second, because of its proximity
  with the Onondaga Indian Reservation, it could
  serve as an ethnological field station, as well
  as become the first step in the development of an
  Iroquois Studies Center. Third, because of the
  proximity of land owned by Onondaga County, a
  site museum at Onondaga 1684-1696 could have the
  financial backing, tourist attraction, and
  community support, which have been exhibited at
  other county museums.

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FURTHER ARCHAELOLGICAL EXCAVATIONS

• In addition to presenting the preliminary
  finding of the 1957 excavation at Onondaga
  1684-1696, the thesis suggests that further
  archaeological excavations be undertaken at this
  site. Another aspect of the thesis is to point
  out that the first phase of a well co-coordinated
  site museum program devoted to the Seventeenth
  Century has been undertaken and completed. This
  was uniquely accomplished in 1933, when Onondaga
  County built the replica of Fort Sainte Marie de
  Gannentaha 1656-1658 at Liverpool, New York. It
  represents the non-Indian intrusion of Onondaga
  Territory. In 1656, when the Iroquois can be said
  to have been at their zenith, and when the
  population of the Onondaga Nation has been
  estimated as being at its greatest, a French fort
  seems to have been built within the territory of
  the Onondagas.

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Points of Details

• The thesis points out the details of fort-museum
  construction which are to be commended. It also
  attempts to criticize the site museums lack of
  research and basic museum techniques. The thesis
  also suggest where and how the fort-museum could
  comply with the site museum. This thesis attempts
  to present the archaeological situation of the
  Pre-Iroquois and Iroquois Periods in Central New
  York. The approach, however, is to begin with a
  review of newly termed concept of the site
  museum. After presenting some of the available
  literature of site museums, development is traced
  on an international, national, and local level.
  When site museums in New York State are reviewed,
  attention is drawn to the Historic Site Program.
  It was hoped that members of this program would
  become aware of how well an Onondaga site museum
  would further efforts to restore and rehabilitate
  places of historic interest in New York State.
  While pointing out the Historic Marker Program in
  New York State, the thesis shows the great
  inadequacy in presenting the Iroquois Period in
  Onondaga County.

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Possible Site Museum

• The thesis states that when Onondaga 1684-1696
  is thought of as a possible site museum, it
  should be considered synonymous with a proposed
  research center. The site museum should serve as
  a field school in archaeology, as well as
  ethnology. Possibly this is the missing link
  between the amateur and the professional
  archaeologist. Regardless, the site museum at
  Onondaga 1684-1696 should serve as the clearing
  house of Iroquois Studies.