With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Dean Snow will obtain 44 radiocarbon dates on materials from Native Aboriginal Mohawk sites which date from the 16th and 17th Centuries A.D. He has very carefully selected maize samples which are clearly associated with site occupation and these will be submitted to the University of Arizona accelerator laboratory which has the ability to analyze small samples. On this basis, he hopes to date 48 sites - each to within a decade. Long term archaeological work has provided excellent data on the early historic Mohawk peoples; most settlements are known and their size has been determined. Before it is possible to estimate past population sizes, however, and determine how these changed over time, accurate dating is necessary. At the present time, inexact and relative ages are based on the nature and amounts of European trade goods which are present. In light of the Columbian bicentennial, increasing attention has been focussed on the interactions between Native American peoples and European colonizers. While it is clear that introduced diseases had a major effect on Native Americans, both the process and the extent have yet to be determined. Some anthropologists and historians believe that populations were decimated and that in prehistoric times the number of inhabitants were many times those observed by early settlers. Others argue that North America was never that densely populated and the effect of disease is significantly less. The data to decide clearly between these alternatives, however, is lacking. In this context, Dr. Snow's Mohawk work is extremely important because the quality and extent of the archaeological work in this area should allow good estimates of changing population over time. This work is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of the early history of Mohawk peoples. It will also provide new insight into the processes of population contact and resulting change.
