Indian Tie-Up

This geological formation known as Indian Tie-Up is in Henniker on Liberty Hill Road. You can access it by taking Day Pond Road off Rte 114 in Warner and about ½ mile at Liberty Hill Road in Bradford, NH take a left toward Henniker and go about a mile. You CANNOT drive down Liberty Hill Road depending on the conditions, it is not maintained, so drive as far as you can and park if you have to. You are simply walking into the woods along trails at times and up a hill to find it. This is a great leaning rock among rocks on a ridge a short hike to the west of the road that can easily shelter say 20 people. 

"Myth: Here you will find HUGE ledges that the Indians used for their winter encampment after they had spent their summer at Lake Massasecum. We shall see if this story hold up to evaluation...

Facts: Abenaki were living in Henniker at Gove’s Pond, now Keyser Pond in 1758. We know from the History of Henniker that the early settlers in Henniker were providing shelter and provisions to the warriors raiding other settlements. We know Abenaki people were still living in Bradford up through 1770 from the Bradford Springs encounter recorded in Two Hundred Years Plus (History of Bradford), and Eastman buried Massasecum in the late 1760s (Mason Tappen's Diary, BHS). We know that William Presbury left Henniker in 1771 to become the first permanent white settler in Bradford on the "forrest trail" (Bradford History, et el) that became Liberty Hill Road and then turns into Rowe Mountain Road in Bradford. The "tie up" is slightly off Liberty Hill road, but with a good knowledge of the area, not that far off. 

Conclusion: We believe it was a way station for moving the captives along to Canada to cash them in to the French, or adopt them into the tribe. Holding up to 20 captives before the march to Canada.

This route was the Henniker to Bradford Abenaki trail that led from the Pag8ntegok (Contoocook) Trail to the Sennibi (Sunapee) Trail and they would have moved on to Okwaskikonkwn (Newbury) to Sennibi to Kwenitegw (The Connecticut River)"

Some white settlers, particularly women and children, were captured for the purpose of adoption so as to replace tribal members who had been lost to disease and war.

When captured for adoption, white settlers were treated as family and tribal members and given the same social status as the person they were replacing. They were given Native clothing, sometimes decorated with feathers, beading, quills, and even wampum (Seashells that had been processed for jewelry, and a valuable gift).

There is no supported mention of women and children suffering abuses from the Native men who captured them, and some children who were taken refused to return to their lives as settlers trying to scrape a living from the land. Even those who were taken for ransom were usually treated with a kindness that surprised the settler captives.

From "Into a Strange Land": Women Captives among the Indians”

^[1] LEANDER W. COGSWELL, History of Henniker, Concord, 1880, p. 54

^[1] LEANDER W. COGSWELL, History of Henniker, Concord, 1880, pp 407-408