The Ancient House

Constructing Community in the Seventeenth-Century New York Borderlands

Erin B. Kramer

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781469693798
  9781469693781
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469693804
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

While New Amsterdam has captured public imagination and scholarly attention for centuries, the Dutch borderland settlement that became Albany, New York, was no less vital to the development of early America. In The Ancient House, historian Erin Kramer examines how early relationships between the Dutch and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) built a foundation for the town’s oversized role in European and Indigenous diplomacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Albany (called “the ancient house” by a Haudenosaunee orator) was an essential space where Indigenous people articulated what it meant for Europeans to settle in their world. Kramer illustrates how Haudenosaunee people shaped the town, its politics, and the laws enforced there through a century of negotiations, and how they sought redress and hold colonists to their agreements. By incorporating Haudenosaunee stories into the broader narrative of New York history, The Ancient House reveals how Albany became a negotiated community, a site of dialogue, and a critical central place in early America.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Language and Translation
• Introduction
• Chapter One. Memory and Peace
• Chapter Two. Building Houses, Feeding the People
• Chapter Three. Walking in the Woods
• Chapter Four. Brother Corlaer’s New House
• Chapter Five. Condolence and Renewal
• Chapter Six. A Sheltering House
• Epilogue: Mastery and Community
• Glossary of Haudenosaunee and Dutch Words
• Notes
• Index