Sources & Method

Every corridor drawn on this map is documented in one or more of the works below.

Principal published sources

• Beauchamp, William M. Aboriginal Occupation of New York. New York State Museum Bulletin 32 (Albany, 1900).
• Beauchamp, William M. Aboriginal Place Names of New York. New York State Museum Bulletin 108 (Albany, 1907).
• Beauchamp, William M. Perch Lake Mounds, with Notes on Other New York Mounds, and Some Accounts of Indian Trails. NYSM Bulletin 87 (Albany, 1905).
• Morgan, Lewis H. League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois. Rochester: Sage & Bro., 1851. (Includes Morgan's map of Iroquois trails.)
• Mitchell, Lewis Evans / cartographic tradition, Indian Trails in New York State (1755, per Beauchamp reproduction).
• Wallace, Paul A. W. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, 1965.
• Ruttenber, Edward M. History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River. Albany: J. Munsell, 1872.
• Buffalo Historical Society, Publications vol. XXIV (Buffalo, 1920), incl. articles on western New York trails.
• Hulbert, Archer Butler. Indian Thoroughfares. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1902.
• Speck, Frank G. Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940.
• Erickson, Vincent O. “Maliseet-Passamaquoddy.” In Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15 (Northeast), ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
• Prins, Harald E. L. The Mi’kmaq: Resistance, Accommodation, and Cultural Survival. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1996.
• Day, Gordon M. The Identity of the Saint Francis Indians. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1981.
• Ghere, David L. “Mistranslations and Misinformation: Diplomacy on the Maine Frontier, 1725–1755.” In American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega, ed. E. W. Baker et al. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

On corridor vs. alignment

Beauchamp and Wallace both treat Indigenous trails as corridors, a documented sequence of towns, fords, and portages through which a route ran, rather than a single surveyed line. This map reproduces that convention by using polylines which connect the documented anchor points. Modern highways frequently overlie these corridors because settlers took over the trails wholesale.

Naming

Route names use the most common terminology found in the sources above. When names differ such as “Catskill Path” versus “Forbidden Path,” or the multiple trails Beauchamp refers to as the “Great Trail” I noted the variant in the popup notes.

Companion resources

• ochermountain.com — Paleoindian ocher and cultural-heritage archive.
• Muhheakantuck / Many Trails Atlas — Mohican displacement and cultural continuity.