A Tour Through Time: The New York Story

Known as the “Empire State,” New York is, as expected, the city and state of immense historical, cultural, and influentially valuable importance. Coming from an Indian settlement, New York developed into one of the world’s most legendary cities and played a big role in shaping American history and culture. With this advance in history, let’s now find out about the history of New York-from its indigenous roots to international recognition.

1. Indians and Early Exploration before 1600

At this point in state history, New York State had a long pre-European past as a homeland of Native Americans that dated to hundreds of thousands of years ago. European explorers had not yet reached the region at this point in time. The region is perhaps best described as inhabited by Algonquian speakers, that is Lenapes, who would eventually settle in modern Manhattan. Much of upstate New York, as well as portions of the territories which surrounded it, was held by the Iroquois Confederacy. It was made up of five independent nations. There were, first of all, the Mohawk and Oneida, then the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and finally, the Seneca nations.
Direct contact with the soil was maintained by these Indians in going after wild game in hunting and fishing, and tilling. The Iroquois are especially renowned for their very well-ordered political society, a confederacy of independent nations. Much has been discovered about the influence these Indians had on the democracy of America through an understanding of their…