John Sheldon’s Snowshoes John Sheldon, a resident of Deerfield, Massachusetts—first settled by colonists in 1669—wore these snowshoes to rescue more than one hundred colonists taken hostage by the French and their Indian allies during the Deerfield Raid of 1704. The design of snowshoes, which colonists in 1666 called “a Rackett tyed to each foote,” was adopted from the Native Americans, who had used them for centuries. Photograph courtesy of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Memorial Hall Museum Deerfield, Massachusetts.