Historic Contact: Early Relations Between Indian People and Colonists in Northeastern North America, 1524-1783

Grumet, Robert

The first three centuries of historic contact between Indians, Europeans, and Africans in what is today the Northeastern United States shaped the national experience of the American people. This National Historic Landmarks Survey theme study surveys documentary, archeological, ethnographic, and other evidence to develop a planning doc;:urnent to identify, evaluate, and designate as Natioria1 Historic Landmarks nationally significant properties associated with historic contact between peoples from two Old Worlds in the Northeast from the Atlantic Coast to the western reaches of the Trans-Appalachian highlands between 1524 and 1783. This study combines two planning processes to achieve this goal. National Historic Landmarks Survey theme framework is used to systematize data relating to this important period in American history. Information associated with the first of these themes, "Cultural Developments - lndigenous American Populations: Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations," is organized within national-scale historic preservation planning process historic contexts establishing a comprehensive framework for their identification, evaluation, and designation. In the short-term, these historic contexts are a vehicle supporting nomination of 16 new NHLs and the thematic upgrade of four existing NHL properties. AJI resources selected for nomination or _thematic upgrade in this NHL theme study satisfy National Historic Landmarks program evaluation criteria and possess values unrepresented or under-represented in the NHL thematic framework. Non-contributing properties associated with other NHL thematic elements in nominated resources are noted and recommended for future study. In conformance with existing regulations, all landowners of nominated NHL properties have consented to designation. In the long-term, this study is a planning tool that may be adapted or adopted by other federal agencies, state and local historic preservation offices, Indian communities, and others. Agencies and individuals interested in historic contact period resources also can use this document to increase public awareness of this critical period in our country's history. The volume further is a basic resource document for the period. Most specifically, frameworks and information presented in the following pages can be employed in the future to both nominate additional properties of national significance as National Historic Landmarks and propose other properties on different levels of significance for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and other registers.

Historic Contact: Early Relations Between Indian People and Colonists in Northeastern North America, 1524-1783

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