Passaic River Home to Native American Artifacts
Old Fishing Weirs Still Exist in Northern New Jersey River
Jun 30, 2009
Retired schoolteacher and Archaeology Society of New Jersey member Tony DeCondo says as many as 11 fishing weirs existed in the Passaic River at one time, but due to chemical plant and home construction along the river in this heavily populated area, most of them have been destroyed. He has documented two fishing weirs in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
The first, between the Fair Lawn Bridge (or 5th Avenue) and Maple Avenue Bridge, is currently under review for the National Historic Register. But there are a few hurdles to attaining that designation. One is that Native American artifacts have not been found near the weir recently, and there is a chance the weirs may not be Native American.
Weirs were documented by early missionaries. Although many of them were built prior to European settlements, the Dutch and English also copied the Native Americans’ fishing weirs because they were so successful at catching fish, says DeCondo.
Getting the Right EvidenceDeCondo, who his currently cataloguing several thousand local Native American arrowheads for the Paterson Museum, Paterson, New Jersey, is convinced the evidence is there to prove Native Americans built the weirs. But anywhere you go, you have to dig very deep to get to thousand-year-old soil since fill from construction was often dumped in or by the river. And some evidence would be better than others.
For instance, pottery and arrowheads would give evidence of historical context, however fish bones would be even better because they can be carbon dated and show that the weirs were indeed used to catch fish at that point in time.
Students Hired to Document Second Fishing Weir
The second fishing weir DeCondo is documenting, an unusual three-winged weir, is located in the Passaic River between the Fair Lawn Memorial Bridge and Memorial Middle School. This time, he is getting help from civil engineering students at Stevens Institute, Hoboken, New Jersey.
DeCondo has created an innovative three-dimensional surveying method that incorporates the height, length, and width of boulders and cobbles from each of the survey points. Lithic samples from each of these points are taken and analyzed to determine their properties.
According to old texts and maps, there are supposed to be 11 weirs down to Newark, but they were probably destroyed by construction, says DeCondo. The still existing fishing weirs can be seen in the Passaic River in aerial photography on Google.
The Native Americans who lived in this region were Lenni-Lenape. Specifically, the three Lenni-Lenape clans included the Tappan, Aquakannok, and Achensachys or Hackensack.
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