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EASTERN WOODLAND VILLAGE SCENE
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TARRATINE
Northern New England
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END OF THE ICE AGE
This painting reflects a scene some time toward the end of the Paleo people in the northeast. It is several thousand
years since the glacier receded, and the landscape is filling with soft and hard wood trees. The vast herds connected with the glacier are gone. Many of the Paleo have
followed the large game into the sub-arctic, while others have remained and adopted small game hunting methods. The Paleo dominance slowly ebbs as they merge with new
peoples appearing in the woodlands. This marks the end of their singular influence and they ponder their future.
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THE SOAPSTONE INDUSTRY OF NEW ENGLAND
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FISHING ON THE QUINABAUG
Women and young girls process the various fish caught at a weir in the Quinabaug River.
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MAKING A DUGOUT CANOE
One of the common means of transportation among the Woodland People was the dugout canoe. It was hollowed out from a
single piece of pine by a process of burning and gouging. The vessel began to take shape as special stone tools known as "gouges" were employed along with controlled
burning. The process involved considerable effort, and several men were typically involved. The finished craft was a stable vessel which moved easily in rivers, lakes and
ponds. In the areas of the northeast where winter weather would freeze lakes and ponds, the canoes were filled with stones and submerged for the winter in order to prevent
them from drying and cracking. It is because of this practice that a number of still-submerged canoes have been discovered, quite well preserved. Birch bark canoes were
also used, although restricted mostly to inland areas where the birch tree grew larger than along the coast.
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CORN ARRIVES IN THE EASTERN WOODLANDS
About the same time the bow and arrow was introduced to the Woodland people, the Adens-Hopwell people of the Ohio Valley
introduced the first corn into into the region. It started out in Central America almost a thousand years earlier, and developed from a grass-like seed into hybrid
varieties that could be grown in the shorter 120-day summers of the Eastern Woodlands. In addition, fish fertilizer was probably used to overcome the poorer soil where
glacier till was found. The abundance of fish taken in early spring to early summer fit perfectly into the cycle. In fact, the smaller one-pound herrings were used
extensively for that purpose. The impact of corn over the older squash and bean planting was immediate and corn dependence was adopted rapidly. However, about 150 years
afterwards, the weather changed and an extended cold period gripped the Woodlands. As a result, many crops failed. The Adena-Hopewell people, traders in the area for
nearly a thousand years, subsequently disappeared. Although their disappearance cannot be directly linked, they may have been blamed for the crop losses.
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PASSACONNAWAY
Lived to be 120 years of age.
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SQUANNIT
Leader of the "Little People"
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THE SPREAD OF THE ATLATL
Sometime during the Early Archaic Period, about 6000 years ago, the people of the woodlands were introduced to a weapon
more powerful than their spears or knives. It was a spear-launching mechanism called the atlatl, an Aztec word meaning spear-thrower, which had made its way from South
America. The scene here shows members of two different tribes, each group claiming the downed bear. One group has the atlatl while the other group is using standard
spears. Whether the men fight for the kill or reach a compromise, it is certain that the group with standard spears will soon learn about the atlatl.
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