The Marketplace

The US Custom House stands on the same ground as Fort Amsterdam, which the Dutch occupied in 1626 to secure control of trade in the increasingly valuable harbor. At that time, the Dutch depended on native people not only for pelts sold throughout Europe but for their very survival, because native knowledge of the area and the trade routes was indispensable. Fort Amsterdam soon became the site of frequent conflict between the Dutch and native people, as well as battles between the Dutch and other Europeans. In 1664, the Dutch lost the island to the English, who renamed it New York. Nearby Wall Street took its name from a wall built in 1653 by Dutch settlers to keep out the “northern Indians,” probably Manicans and Munsees. It is therefore ironic that the US Custom House became a gathering place and a center for peaceful cultural exchange between the native people of the Americas and the world, where near Wall Street the many living and colorful marketplaces of the native world converge again at the National Museum of the American Indian.

New York, New York · United States