Mysterious Rock Construction on Two Trees Island Off the Shores of Pelham

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Two Trees Island was made famous, in effect, by local historian Theodore L. ("Ted") Kazimiroff in a pair of books he published entitled:  The Last Algonquin (1982) and If These Trees Could Only Talk (2014).  In these books Kazimiroff told the story of Joe Two Trees and his ancestors, Native Americans who once lived in the region of Hunter's Island and roamed the area from the Harlem River to today's Pelham Bay Park and beyond.  

In The Last Algonquin, Ted Kazimiroff tells the story of how his father (Dr. Theodore Kazimiroff, former Bronx Historian) was befriended as a young Boy Scout in the early 1920s by an elderly Algonquin who continued to live a simple Native American life while essentially hiding in a vine-covered campsite in the Hunter's Island region of today's Pelham Bay Park.  Joe Two Trees, according to the tale, was born in the area more than eighty years before and, in his final months, befriended the young boy and taught him much about Native American ways.  Then, as Joe Two Trees neared death in his Native American shelter in the early 1920s, he asked the young boy to listen to his life story and to keep his deeds alive by retelling that story as a way to keep his spirit alive.  

When the young boy grew into a man and had his own son (whom he named Theodore L. "Ted" Kazimiroff), he told his young son the story of Joe Two Trees and stories of the ancestors of Joe Two Trees.  Ted Kazimiroff later decided to help keep the spirit of Joe Two Trees alive by writing his two books (which I recommend highly as both informative and entertaining reading of interest to those wanting to learn more about the histories of the Town of Pelham, Pelham Bay Park, Hunter's Island, and the Northeast Bronx).  

Joe Two Trees was so-named by his mother, Small Doe.  She named him after a tiny island off the shores of Pelham with two trees on it at the time.  Two Trees Island stood only a few feet north of East Twin Island, once one of a pair of islands known as "the Twins" (West Twin Island and East Twin Island).  The Twins, in turn, were a pair of islands immediately east of Hunter's Island.  Eventually a small stone causeway was built to connect Hunter's Island to West Twin Island.  

During the 1930s, Robert Moses led a project that used landfill to create Orchard Beach and the Orchard Beach Parking Lot which attached Hunter's Island to the mainland.  Then, in 1947, an expansion of Orchard Beach joined the Twins to the mainland as well.  

Even today it is possible to get to Two Trees Island at low tide simply by walking across to it from East Twin Island via a mudflat that connects the two.  One author recently wrote:

"[Y]ou can continue to the northern end of Twin Island and cross over at low tide to Two Trees Island.  This charming small island is great for exploring with children.  (It is, however, common to find a man or two sunning themselves on rocks in extremely skimpy bathing suits.)  Litter can sometimes be a problem, but don't let that stop you from combing the area for arrowheads left by Native Americans and artifacts from early European settlers, which are still occasionally found.  The mudflat between Twin and Two Trees Island is also a great spot for finding fiddler crabs and tasty glasswort (a sea-side herb) and beautiful sea lavender in spring and summer."

Source:  Seitz, Sharon & Miller, Stuart, The Other Islands of New York City:  A History and Guide, p. 135 (3rd Edition - Woodstock, VT:  The Countryman Press, 2011)

Immediately below is a satellite image showing the area today and indicating the location of Two Trees Island.  

2017 Google Maps Satellite Image of Orchard Beach Area.  Two Trees

Island is in the Upper Right Corner with a Portion of Hunter's Island Visible

on the Left, a Portion of the Orchard Beach Parking Lot Visible on the

Lower Left, and a Portion of Orchard Beach at the Bottom.  NOTE:  Click

on Image to Enlarge.

The detail below from a map published in 1905 shows the area that includes Hunter's Island, the Twins, Two Trees Island, and other rock outcroppings and islands in the area before Hunter's Island, the Twins, and Two Trees Island were attached to the mainland.

Detail from 1905 Map of Pelham Bay Park Showing the Twins, at Bottom,

and Two Trees Island Slightly to the Right of East Twin Island.  Source:

Office of the President of the Borough of the Bronx Topographical

Bureau, Topographical Survey Sheets of the Borough of the Bronx

Easterly of the Bronx River, Sheet 29 "Map of OPelham Bay Park City of

New York Forming Sheet 29 of the Topographical Atlas of the Territory East

of the Bronx River" (1905) (Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division,

The New York Public Library).  NOTE: Click Image to Enlarge.

Immediately below is a photograph of Two Trees Island taken several years ago, followed by attribution.

Photograph of Two Trees Island by Matthew Houskeeper Taken on

November 30, 2010.  Used With Magnanimous Permission.  Please

Visit His Important and Informative Blog Soundbounder Located at

http://soundbounder.blogspot.com.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Immediately below is an image of a 19th century painting by Frederick Rondel believed to depict a portion of Two Trees Island with David's Island in the distance behind the sailboat.

"Pine Island, New York" by Frederick Rondel (1826-1892).

Oil on Board (8.1" x 10.2"), Thought to Depict Two Trees

Island.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Two Trees Island is located adjacent to (and some sources state within) the "Hunter Island Marine Zoology and Geology Sanctuary" located north of Orchard Beach.  See Day, Leslie, Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, p. 31 (Baltimore, MD:  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) (In Association with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation).   

A most intriguing and unusual feature may be found on Two Trees Island.  There is a rocky campsite where a rock outcropping likely has been used as a shelter.  Ted Kazimiroff has identified this site as the very campsite used by Joe Two Trees before his death in the early 1920s.  See Kazimiroff, Theodore L., If These Trees Could Only Talk -- An Anecdotal History of New York City's Pelham Bay Park, p. ii (Outskirts Press, Inc., Copyright 2014 by Theodore L. Kazimiroff).  Ted Kazimiroff includes a photograph on page ii of his book showing himself standing in front of the shelter with the following caption:  "Ted Kazimiroff, author, in the old campsite.  This is where many generations of immigrants to America both Indian and Europeans sought shelter from the elements over thousands of years."

Photograph of  Shelter on Two Trees Island by Matthew Houskeeper Taken

on November 30, 2010.  Used With Magnanimous Permission.  Please

Visit His Important and Informative Blog Soundbounder Located at

http://soundbounder.blogspot.com.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Who built the shelter marked by the flat rocks laid along a sheltering rock outcropping on Two Trees Island?  The short answer seems to be:  no one knows.  Even if Joe Two Trees used the location as a campsite, it does not, of course, mean that the flat rocks laid along the outcropping were his or that they even were laid before (or after) he used the site.  Indeed, it is possible to wander the entire areas of Two Trees Island, West Twin Island, and East Twin Island and see rock stairs and even the remnants of sheltered locations such as this one that were built by campers, members of local summer colonies, members of the so-called "Twin Island Cabana Club," and many others who frequented this area throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.  

It is, for example, well known that members of what once was known as the "Twin Island Cabana Club" built a dozen or more "rock shelters"  fashioned by stacking heavy stones to create a shelter from wind and inclement weather on the Twin Islands and, in this case perhaps, on Two Trees Island as well.  Similar rock shelters, stone fireplaces, and the like were built on Hunter's Island as well and were used regularly at least from the 1920s through the 1970s.  In fact, in a written survey regarding Hunter's Island and its resources prepared in 1974, the author noted the existence of such rock shelters, saying:

"Hunter's Island doesn't have sand covered bathing beaches and access is by foot.  However, there is a group of visitors, that because of their unique style and use of the Island, who must enter into this discussion of the area.  They are a close knit group of friends and acquaintances, predominantly of Russian and German origin, who visit the place practically every day throughout the entire year. These visits have taken place for the past fifty years.  Individually they make their way to the park and meet at certain established places, where they will spend the day enjoying each other's company and cooking their communal meals.  They have built stone fire places, picnic tables and shelters for protection against inclement weather.  The interior of Hunter's Island is almost completely free of litter since these people, voluntarily, take the responsibility for the cleaning and maintenance of the area.  The boardwalk that extends to one of the knolls described before, was built entirely by these groups.  They have a tie with Hunter's Island, one built on time and respect."  

Source:  Geraci, Robert, Hunter's Island Existing Resources and Potential Uses Preliminary Survey, p. 6 (mss; June 1974) (thanks to Jorge Santiago of the East Bronx History Forum for bringing this reference to my attention).  

In short, we may never know who constructed the sheltered area on Two Trees Island depicted above.  Yet, the name of the island, the existence of the sheltered area, and the two wonderful books by Ted Kazimiroff have kept the spirit of Joe Two Trees alive -- and that seems far more important.  

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Is It Possible an Algonquian Oral Tradition of the Native American Sale of Lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654 Has Survived?

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The questions seem far-fetched.  Is it possible that an Algonquian oral tradition of the sale by Native Americans of the lands that became the Manor of Pelham to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654 has survived?  If so, does it provide any insights into how the land transaction was perceived by the Native Americans who were involved?

It is well-established that Thomas Pell of Fairfield acquired a vast tract of land from Native Americans on June 27, 1654.  Indeed, a copy of the deed believed to be in Pell's own handwriting still exists.  

17th Century Copy of Pell Deed Signed by Thomas Pell

and Native Americans on June 27, 1654, Believed To Be

in Thomas Pell's Handwriting.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

There is no reliable record documenting when, where, or how the Pell Deed was executed.  Tradition, likely apocryphal, long has held that the deed was signed beneath the spreading branches of a massive White Oak that survived into the 20th century on the grounds of today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.  The spot is marked with a circular wrought-iron fence that once protected the so-called "Pell Treaty Oak" before its death in the early 20th century.  

There is, however, a purported record of an Algonquian oral tradition passed from generation to generation until it was recorded in a book published in 1982 about sixty years after the death of the Native American who recounted the tradition.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog addresses this oral tradition.

We should not, immediately, dismiss the possible academic merit and potentially scholarly substance of such a record.  As one academic recently has written:

"Oral histories can go back many hundreds of years, as three generations of people living into their eighties can span 200 years in storytelling.  It is the old folks who tell the stories.  Since the Indians were strong on oral history to keep their tribe's belief's intact, they could have had good tribal memories for many hundreds of years."

Source:  Buckland, John Alexander, The First Traders on Wall Street:  The Wiechquaeskeck Indians of Southwestern Connecticut in the Seventeenth Century, p. 132 (Westminster, MD:  Heritage Books, Inc., 2009).  

In 1982, Theodore Kazimiroff, son of former Bronx Historian, dentist, naturalist, and amateur archaeologist Dr. Theodore ("Ted") Kazimiroff, published a book entitled "The Last Algonquin."  In it, he detailed a story long told him by his father, Dr. Kazimiroff, before his father's death in 1980.  The book tells of Dr. Kazimiroff's encounter with a Native American living off the land on Hunter's Island in Pelham Bay Park during the 1920s when Dr. Kazimiroff was a young boy.  The Algonquin called himself Joe Two Trees and followed Native American traditions including the making of pottery, the crafting of stone tools, the preparation of clothing from animal hides, and traditional hunting, fishing, and food preparation techniques.

As detailed in the book, the young boy met Joe Two Trees in the final year of his life and grew close to him, visiting him as often as possible. As Joe Two Trees neared death, living in a traditional wigwam crafted with his own hands on Hunter's Island, he recounted the story of his life to his young friend who helped care for him.  According to that story, Joe Two Trees was born as "Two Trees" on Hunter's Island in about 1840.  His father was named Eagle Feather.  His mother was named Small Doe.  Both his mother and father died before Two Trees was fifteen and remaining members of his clan departed for places unknown.

Two Trees made his way to Manhattan where he worked during the winter of 1855-56.  After killing a thief who attempted to rob him of his meager earnings, Two Trees fled to Staten Island and, then, New Jersey where he lived off the land following traditional Native American ways.  By 1858 he made his way to Pennsylvania where he was directed to coal mines where he worked for about two years until 1860.  

After his stint in a Pennsylvania coal mine, Two Trees -- then known as "Joe Two Trees" -- made his way across the land back toward New York City which he reached in the early winter of 1862.  He lived the next sixty years or so in New York, much of that time on Hunter's Island where he died.

Joe Two Trees, according to Dr. Kazimiroff and his son, told the young boy a number of stories that were part of the fabric of his life.  One of those stories purportedly involved an oral account of the Native American sale of lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654.  As told in the book "The Last Algonquin," Two Trees told young Ted Kazimiroff that in the mid-seventeenth century as the Native Americans near Manhattan chafed at the ever-greater pressure of European settlers pressing toward their lands, local Native American clans in the region decided to split with some departing the region and a small group including the ancestors of Two Trees deciding to stay as the Turtle Clan.  According to Kazimiroff in his book:

"The new group [the Turtle Clan], flourished and they did all the things their sachem had ordered on the night of the joining ceremony.  They hunted and planted, fished and lived well.  Some died, but new children were born often, and they stayed a large clan for many years.

During this time, in 1654, a man named Thomas Pell had come to live nearby.  He wished to buy land here, and after the people saw that he was a good man who dealt honorably with his Indian neighbors, they agreed to listen to his offer of purchase.  Although the Turtle clan was not directly involved in the transaction, their brothers on the mainland invited them to the deliberations.  They were, after all, nearby, and this sale could well affect them too.  Subsequent studies revealed many of the details of what followed.

The white man spoke to the Indian delegation for a long time.  He promised peace and respect.  He said he would interfere with their lives as little as possible.  He told them that he would stay away from their holy places, and allow them to hunt on the land even after it was his.  He promised the red men that he would use the land and its game in ways that would not anger their Great Spirit.

Joe's people listened in silence, and when he had finished, they walked off a little way to make council.  After everyone had spoken, the leader saw that the agreement would be made.  Now he must bargain for a high price.  The beads and knives, jackets and pots had simply proven too much for the forest people to resist.  The sale was made now; all that remained was a final price.

The Indians and white man sat down under a large oak tree that day and made treaty.  A steatite smoking pipe was passed from hand to hand to seal the agreement.  The Indian people with their new pots and beads and other treasures were very much poorer when they finally stood up.

The oak tree grew alongside Shore road near the present Bartow Mansion.  It grew there, a landmark from earlier times, in an open field until early in the twentieth century when it was struck by lightning.  It subsequently died and rotted.  Now, an iron fence stands around the spot where Thomas Pell purchased Pelham Bay Park, parts of Westchester, and areas of the Bronx in 1654.  The final price must have been one of the best bargains in history.

The treaty was otherwise a good one, and both sides lived by it.  But the seeds of the end had been sown with its signing.  All people who make treaties have one thing in common.  None of them lives forever."

Source:  Kazimiroff, Theodore L., THE LAST ALGONQUIN, pp. 42-43 (London, New Delhi, New York, Sidney:  Bloomsbury, 1982) (paperback ISBN 978-0-8027-7517-7).

There has been a long-standing debate over whether Joe Two Trees existed and, even if so, whether "The Last Algonguin" accurately reflects his life.  Some of Dr. Kazimiroff's friends thought it odd that he had never mentioned Joe Two Trees to them before his death.  Although Dr. Kazimiroff's son who authored the book has acknowledged "fleshing out" the story, he has insisted that the basic story was true.  

Of course, even if Joe Two Trees recounted an oral tradition of Thomas Pell's purchase on June 27, 1654, we will never know if it was accurate in the first place or whether it was accurately described when put to paper some sixty years later.  Yet, the fact that such an account exists at all provides a tantalizing glimpse of a day that is admittedly one of the most significant in the history of Pelham.

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