Before History: The First Nations of Bergen County, April 18, 2010 – 1:00 to 4:00 pm
(Rescheduled from Sunday, March 14, 2010)
Postponed by the great March storm, the Bergen County Historical Society will celebrate the Algonquian New Year from 1 to 4 PM on Sunday, April 18, 2010, at Historic New Bridge Landing, 1201-1209 Main Street, River Edge 07661. Join us for refreshments and a lively historical presentation as Bob Wills, of the Sunrise Trading Post, shares his knowledge of Lenape foods, herbs and customs, showing and selling traditional trade items representative of the Contact Period. Reproduction items for sale include real quahog shell wampum, hair pipes (originally ornamental bone tubes manufactured from bird bones, but which the Dutch traders made from cattle bones), medicine bags, clay pipes, tomahawks, thimbles, mirrors, cloth, deerskin, knives, gorgets, and books.
This year’s celebration includes a special exhibit, Before History: The First Nations of Bergen County, comprising local Native American pottery shards, stone and bone tools, ornaments and pipes from the collections of the Bergen County Historical Society. The Historical Society’s Dugout Canoe, unearthed in Hackensack in 1868, will also be exhibited, along with Hungarian sculptor John Ettl’s famous 1921 bronze bust of Oratam, Sachem of the Hackensacks. Suggested donation: $7 adult, $5 children, BCHS members free. For info, visit
http://www.bergencountyhistory.org or call 201-343-9492
The first Dark Moon after the Long Moon marks the arrival of Chwame gischuch, the Smelt Moon, and the New Year of the ancient Sanhicans and Minisinks, locally known as the Hackensacks and Tappans. Native peoples returned from their winter villages, gathering at the narrows of the great streams, in places such as Acquackanonck (Garfield) and Aschatking (New Bridge), to set their fykes and weirs and catch smelt and later shad as these fish ran up the rivers in great numbers. The Dark Moon of April (April 11-13) was known as Hackihewi gischuch, the Planting Moon.
