The year was 1609, and British explorer Henry Hudson had landed in North America at the bidding of the Dutch East India Company. But Hudson was not the first man to set foot on Manhattan Island. Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York chronicles this historic “discovery” with a hereto unknown perspective—that of the people who met Hudson’s boat on their shore. Using all available sources, including oral history passed down to today’s Algonquins, Evan Pritchard tells a colonization story through several lenses: from Hudson himself, as well as his bodyguard, scribe, and personal Judas, Robert Juet; to the Eastern Algonquin people, who saw his boat as a floating waterfowl, and his arrival as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.
To be stewards of the earth, not owners: this was the way of the Lenape. Considering themselves sacred land keepers, they walked gently; they preserved the world they inhabited. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, interviews with living Algonquin elders, and first-hand explorations of the ancient trails, burial grounds, and sacred sites, Native New Yorkers offers a rare glimpse into the civilization that served as the blueprint for modern New York. A fascinating history, supplemented with maps, timelines, and a glossary of Algonquin words, this book is an important and timely celebration of a forgotten people.
