Champlain Valley

Cultural history of the Champlain Valley began far ago, to be more precise it was about 11,300 years ago BP (before present). That time Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer groups have just settled in the region, which was signifying the end of the last ice age - the Laurentian ice sheet started retreating north. It is known that Native Americans have been continuously living in this Valley from those times to the present. Lake in the Champlain Valley was a source of water, food, work tools, transportation, and spiritual guidance. Back in prehistoric times, Native Americans built small villages and campsites along the lake’s shore, they developed unique tools and specific techniques to gather resources the lake gave. Lakeside workshops and vestiges of their occupation were discovered in archaeological missions throughout the Champlain Valley.
Unfortunately, now many sites lie submerged due to the isostatic rebound and changed lake levels in Champlain Valley. None of those prehistoric sites were documented and this created a sufficient gap in study and understanding of Native Americans’ way of life and methods they used for utilization of the lake's resources. But undoubtedly, Lake Champlain itself and all preceding water bodies played one of the most important roles in lives of every Native American family, who lived in the Valley.
Native American groups that lived in Paleo-indian area probably were the first, who used watercraft on the Lake of Champlain (which later became a part of Champlain Sea) – while fishing and hunting along the shore they constructed small skincraft to gather food resources available from the lake. Later generations, namely the Archaic and subsequently the Woodland peoples, employed other techniques – the built small craft made of skins, tree bark, or hollowed-out logs. But very few examples of those craft have been found and we know very little about their appearance, design, construction, or use. Unfortunately organic materials (such as bark or skin) from which boats were made did not preserve well in this climate; that is why no evidence can be included in the archaeological records. But wooden canoes preserved well – at least a dozen of them was found in ponds and lakes throughout the Champlain Valley territory. These boats look very simple, but they are carrying much information – they probably date between the Late Woodland period (2900-400 BP) and the beginning of 19th century.