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ME. SCHOOLCRAFT'S REPORT 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ABORIGINAL NAMES 
 
 AND 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PART I.— VALLEY OF THE HUDSON. 
 
REPORT 
 
 THE ABORIGINAL NAMES 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PART I.— V ALLEY OF THE HUDSON. 
 
 MADE TO THE NEW YOKK. HISTORICAL SOCIETY — BY THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO 
 
 FREPAE^r MAP, ETC., AND READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY, FEBRUARY, 1844. 
 
 BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 
 
 rUBLiSIIED FROM THE SOCIETY'S PROCEEDINGS FOR 1844. 
 
 NSV/ YORK: 
 
 P R I N T r, D FOE THE * C I. S T i! . 
 
 1845. 
 
WM. VAN NORDKN, PRINTER, 49 LIBKRTY STEEKT. 
 
CIRCULAR OF THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 Rooms of the New York Historical Society, 
 University of New York. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 The undersigned, having been appointed a committee, to prepare a Map of 
 the State, with all the original Indian names, solicit information on this head. It 
 is believed that sectional maps, made by the early surveyors, exist among family 
 papers, and would be communtcated, as well as, in some instances, manuscript 
 journals and letters. Another source of information, is to be found in the names 
 of creeks, rivers, and other boundary marks, in early deeds. Tradition, in 
 townships and neighborhoods, is a tliird, and still fruitful source of preserving 
 these names, the meaning of which, may sometimes be yet obtained, from the 
 natives, or from interpreters. 
 
 Every year carries to the grave, some of those pioneers and early settlers, who 
 are the best qualified to give the desired information, and thus narrows the circle 
 of tradition, at its highest source. This Society furnishes a safe and eligible re- 
 pository for all such documents, whether presented, or deposited. It is an object 
 of deep interest, with its members, to collect and preserve, the sonorous and 
 appropriate Indian terminology of the State. The committee will make due 
 acknowledgments, in their final report, for all aid in this species of research. 
 
 Communications may be made to either of the undersigned, or under cover, to 
 Georse Folsom, Esq., the Domestic Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, ' 
 
 C. FENNO HOFFMAN, 
 
 S. VERPLANCK, 
 
 WILLIAM L. STONE, 
 
 B. F. BUTLER,- 
 
 EDWARD ROBINSON, 
 
 WM. W. CAMPBELL, j 
 
ABORIGINAL NAMES, &C. 
 
 § Ancient Indian Stocks of North America, east of the 
 Mississippi river. — From Tradition. 
 
 In speaking of the Ancient Tribes, who inhabited the 
 borders of the Atlantic, Philologists have found a manifest 
 want of terms of an appropriate-generic character, and yet 
 sufficiently distinctive, to denote the original races, or 
 mother-stocks, who have peopled the country. Tradition 
 has preserved but a few names, of this character, relative 
 to the great unknown period of their early chronology. 
 Our absolute knowledge of the entire race, does not pene- 
 trate farther back than 1492 ; and it was a century later, 
 before the Atlantic coasts of North America began to be 
 settled. At this era, the native population was divided into 
 an almost infinite number of tribes, each of whom claimed 
 some of the characteristics of nationality, but none of whom 
 had preserved any exact and clear traditions of their origin, 
 history or affiliation. 
 
 The course of the migration of barbaric tribes, on this 
 continent, appears to have resembled that, which history 
 denotes to have prevailed on the Asiatic continent, and 
 1* 
 
6 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 during the early epochs of Europe. One type or race of 
 adventurous or predatory tribes, succeeded another, and 
 held possession for a time, till it was pushed away, or over- 
 thrown by a stronger or fiercer tribe. Of these successive 
 developments of a wandering people, in North America, 
 theory and conjecture, have left us an ample field for their 
 exercise, but nearly all that we can say, with historic truth, 
 of the early state of our aborigines, is, that the last bands, 
 in point of time, were numerically greater or stronger, than 
 their predecessors in the forest, since they conquered them, 
 and kept possesion of the country. When the continent 
 itself was first occupied, where the impulse of population 
 began its movement, and how it proceeded, in the career of 
 conquest and the division of nations and languages, we 
 cannot pretend, with any certainty, to say. The first 
 voyagers and discoverers, found all the coast inhabited, but 
 not densely occupied. The people, seen at various places, 
 resembled each other very much, in looks, color, habits and 
 manners. They were nomades and hunters, roved vast 
 tracts, with bow and arrow, claimed to be independent of 
 each other, and spoke diverse languages. The number of 
 the tribes and nations, appeared to be very great. 
 
 It was evident, however, as soon as enquiry began to be 
 properly directed to the subject, that, while the territory of 
 North America was overspread with a multiplicity of tribes 
 and bands, each bearing a separate name, and claiming 
 separate sovereignty, there were but a few generic stocks. 
 And that the diversity noticed by Europeans, and insisted 
 on by the aborigines themselves, had arisen, chiefly, from 
 the progress and development of languages, among rude 
 and unlettered tribes. Distinct from this diversity of lan- 
 guage, they might have all been called one people. 
 
 When we dismiss this era of the colonization of our coast, 
 and push back the inquiry on the simple strength of abori- 
 ginal tradition, concerning the generic stocks, and the an- 
 cient state of things among them, it is remarkable how 
 little we have, which is at all entitled to attention. Even 
 the Aztecs, who had attained a state of semi-civilization, 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 7 
 
 in the valley of Mexico, and had a system of pictorial in- 
 scription superior to the northern tribes, are not able to 
 trace their history beyond the year of our Lord, 1000. 
 And much of the certainty of this computation arises from 
 the observation of an eclipse during the reign of one of 
 their emperors, which has enabled astronomers, to verify 
 the period. 
 
 But the tribes situated north of the Gulf of Mexico, as a 
 general limit, and east of the Mississippi, while they also 
 used, to some extent, a pictorial and symbolic method of 
 expressing ideas on strips of bark and other substances, had, 
 actually, no signs whatever to mark their chronology, and 
 hardly a trace of astronomical knowledge, beyond the 
 counting of the phases of the moon, and the noting of the 
 summer and winter solstices. The latter constituted the 
 completion of their year, and was the term found to be in 
 universal use, for computing age. They had no history, no 
 chronology, no astronomy, no arts, no letters — nothing, in 
 fine, by which they could connect themselves with the other 
 races of the human family in Europe, Asia, or Africa. 
 With the exception of the Aztec picture writings, there 
 was not even a tradition of such connexion. Most of the 
 tribes north of the latitude of the Gulf of Mexico, believed 
 themselves to have come out of the ground, by an almighty 
 fiat, which they concealed under various allegories ; and to 
 have no foreign, or derivative origin. 
 
 Where there is so much thick darkness, it is gratifying to 
 find even a little light breaking it. In contemplating their 
 traditions, we find two or three names of races, which we 
 may regard as occupying the foreground of our Indian his- 
 tory. Tradition asserts, that at an ancient period, there 
 was a powerful nation living in the southern spurs of- the 
 great mountain range, which still bears their name, who 
 were called, by early writers, Appalachites. They spread 
 over the vallies and rivers having their issue in the Mexi- 
 can Gulf, where some of their descendants have remained, 
 under various names, constituting the Indians of the Flori- 
 dian type, and others migrated south into the circle of the 
 
8 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 Carribean islands.* The northern extension of the Appa- 
 lachian chain, brings to notice another of the early abori- 
 ginal races, of the anti-colonial period, in the popular name 
 of Alleghany. This name is derived, according to the re- 
 spectable authority of Colonel Gibson, who was well versed 
 in the Indian languages, from Talligues or Talligewy, an 
 ancient people who inhabited the banks of the Alleghany 
 river, and the northern spurs of the Alleghany mountains. 
 The name of this nation, he thinks, should be written 
 Allegewi. 
 
 Indian tradition, which is recorded in the transactions of 
 the American Philosophical Society, asserts that the Alle- 
 gewi had crossed the Mississippi, in their migration, east- 
 ward, and reached and spread themselves in the vallies of 
 these mountains. In the progress of the occupancy of this 
 part of the continent, they were followed by two other 
 stocks, of diverse language, who, however, formed an alli- 
 ance for their overthrow and expulsion. One of these allied 
 tribes, is known to modern writers, under the name of Min- 
 GOES, but more generally under the French sobriquet of 
 iRoauois, — a term founded on an exclamation which these 
 warlike people employed, in their responses to public 
 speeches. In the progress of their eventful history, they 
 called themselves, some half a century before the settlement 
 of New York,! Acquinushionee or United Tribes, but are 
 better known, in our historical annals, at first as the Five, 
 and afterwards, the Six Nations. The other tribe of the 
 ancient alliance to overthrow the Allegewi, philologists 
 have agreed to call by the name of Algonquins, or Algics. 
 The particular type of them who entered into this alliance 
 on the Ohio, denominated themselves Lenno Lenapees, a 
 term meaning according to various interpreters, either the 
 Common People, or the People who are men. In the course 
 of a long and sanguinary warfare maintained by these two 
 nations against the Allegewi, the latter were finally defeated 
 
 * The History of the Cariby Islands &c. — Jolin Davies, London, 1666. 
 t Pyrlases. 
 
TERMIXOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 9 
 
 and expelled from the country, retreating down the valley 
 of the Ohio, since which period, they have not re-appeared. 
 Such are the Aboriginal accounts as derived from the 
 Lenapees. 
 
 The Iroquois and Algonquin races spread themselves, 
 north-eastwardly along the Atlantic coasts, and up the St. 
 Lawrence Valley into the Great Lakes. Virginia, the 
 Carolinas, and Maryland were first colonized, while tribes 
 of each of these generic stocks, still occupied the Allegha- 
 nies and its vallies. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New 
 York, were settled under similar circumstances, of Indian 
 occupancy, with this characteristic difference, which ap- 
 plied, however to some extent south, that the Iroquois tribes, 
 occupied the sources of the great streams, and interior 
 grounds, while nations of the Algic or Algonquin type, were 
 planted at the mouths of the rivers and along the Atlantic 
 coasts. It has been noticed in the world's history, that 
 ichtheophagi are of less muscular strength and energy, than 
 nations who subsist on flesh. The result in our coast tribes, 
 not only afiirms this observation, but another remarkable 
 consequence, grew out of this general geographical position. 
 The Iroquois race b)' occupying the summit lands and sources 
 of the great navigable rivers of the continent east and 
 north-east of the Alleghanies, placed themselves on vantage 
 ground, and by drawing, as it were, a cordon around the 
 back of the Indian towns from North Carolina to Western 
 New' York, by the way of the Alleghany and the Ohio, the 
 St. Lawrence and the Lakes, subdued the Atlantic Algon- 
 quins and placed them either in a state of political surveil- 
 liance or of actual tribute. This general result had 
 happened, when the colonies began to be planted about 
 A. D. 1600; and had the influx into North America, of the 
 Saxon and Celtic races, been delayed, a century longer, the 
 world would have, probably seen, in the Acquinushionee, 
 another example of semi-civilization, equal in acquirements, 
 and far superior in efficiency, to the Mexican empire, under 
 the Montezumas. 
 
10 aboriginal names and geographical 
 
 § Closer view of the dispersion of the Generic tribes ; 
 FROM History : effects of change on Language. 
 
 We can but glance at events, as we come into the historic 
 period. In the year IGIO, Lord de la Warre, in a passage 
 to Virginia, touched at the Capes of the Delavi^are, and the 
 Indian name of the river, M^hich was not euphonious, was 
 changed out of compliment to this nobleman, to Delaware. 
 The Lenno Lenapees, who then inhabited its banks, also in 
 time, dropped their vernacular term and took the name of 
 Delawares, which has been continued to the present time. 
 Penn adopted it, in his subsequent treaties with them, on 
 the settlement of Pennsylvania, and popular usage has now 
 sanctioned it, for two centuries. 
 
 The Lenapees, consisted originally, as they affirm, of 
 three tribes, the Unami, or Turtle, the Mississa or Turkey, 
 and the Minci, or Wolf. The two former, must have been 
 early blended, as they are not known, in their separate ex- 
 istence, under our history. The Minci, or Moncees, as they 
 are more generally called, occupied the eastern parts of New 
 Jersey from the sea coast, to the west banks of the Hudson, 
 and up the same, keeping its west bank as high as the 
 Wallkill. The Nanticokes of Maryland and Virginia," 
 united their broken fortunes with the Delawares, and ascend- 
 ed the Delaware river with them, and thus intermingled Avith 
 the Monceys. It is in this manner, that the Indian popula- 
 tion of the sources of the Delaware became very mixed in 
 its character, and led at various times and places, in the 
 settlement of that part of our State, to the application of 
 several distinct terms, to a people, who had, in reality strong 
 affinities of blood, and spoke dialects of the same parent 
 language. As an instance, those of them, who dwelt at a 
 large island in the Delaware, were called Minnisinks, or 
 Islanders, a term purely geographical, and affording no 
 indication of distinctive nationality. By the intercommu- 
 nication which exists between the head-waters of the 
 Delaware, and the banks of the Hudson, through the Wall- 
 kill, this mixed population, spread from river to river, taking 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OP NEW YORK. 11 
 
 distinctive local names from the spots where they resided. 
 It is in this manner, that the original area of the counties of 
 Orange and Ulster, became the locality of numerous bands, 
 who had, however no well founded claim to be considered 
 as independent tribes, or even sub-tribes. In one quarter, 
 this population crossed the Hudson to its eastern banks, and 
 spread among, or lived in villages, intercalated with the 
 Mohegans. This was the character of portions of the In- 
 dian population of the ancient area of Dutchess county. 
 
 Let us now return to the Atlantic coast. We have seen 
 that this coast, from Virginia to the Gulf of the St. Law- 
 rence, was occupied by tribes of the Great Algonquin race. 
 How the population of this important stock diffused itself, 
 and assumed peculiarities, as it spread from south to north, 
 along the sea coast, reaching to Massachusetts and Maine, 
 and Nova Scotia, we do not know ; but we perceive in the 
 languages, and in the general manners, customs and tradi- 
 tions of the tribes, at the respective eras of settlement, 
 indubitable proofs of the ancient connection and ethnolo- 
 gical affiliation of all these tribes. Whether the Powhat- 
 tanic type of the Algic, had preceded or mixed with the 
 Lenapee, in its course northward and eastward, producing 
 the sub-types of the Mohegan, Narragansett, Metoac and 
 others, must be mere conjecture ; but there are strong 
 analogies of sound, as well as proofs of syllabical intermix- 
 ture, in the examination of the language, to favor the 
 conjecture. As a general principle in the sounds of the 
 language we may remark, that the open vowel sounds 
 became less characteristic of w^ords, as the tribes advanced 
 northwardly and diffused themselves over the seaboard of 
 New York and New England. This influence of change 
 and deterioration was felt, and is to be perceived, at this day, 
 in the geographical names of the north, in the the loss of 
 the liquid I of the Lenapees and of the sonorous asperate in 
 r of the Powhattans. The sound of the letter r ceases, in 
 the Indian words of the coast, in the progress northeast, 
 after passing the Chesapeake, and is supplied by mi. That 
 of the letter /, ceases after passing the capes of the Dela- 
 
12 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 ware, and does not quite reach, in any instance, the west 
 banks of the Hudson. This letter is the test of the true 
 extent oi Lenapee or Delaware proper. Other interchanges 
 of the consonants occur, in this transfusion of the Algic 
 race northward. They may be remarked, in a striking 
 manner, by the changes of the local inflection, in geographi- 
 cal names from o, oc, and ong, to uk, and ett, which are 
 very common after reaching to, and beyond the Hudson. 
 The whole of the sea coast tribes were semi-ichtheophagi, 
 and the deteriorating influence of habit upon language, is 
 plainly discernible, when we compare the vocabularies of 
 these sea coast tribes, with those of cognate tribes in the 
 west and northwest, and midland districts of the conti- 
 nent, who subsist on flesh and pursue invigorating em- 
 ployments of the chace. 
 
 On reaching the harbor and expanded bay of New York, 
 we first find in the Indian names, the territory of the 
 MoHEGANs. When the Dutch in 1609 entered the river, 
 which now bears the name of Hudson, its left, or eastern 
 banks, were found to be inhabited by this stock. They 
 were broken up, into a great many bands, and local chief- 
 taincies, or sachemdoms, each of which bore a separate 
 name, like our townships, and each claiming independent 
 power, but all being sufficiently identified by their parent 
 language. Those who occupied the island of New York 
 or Manhattan, together with Staten Island, and the smaller 
 group, called themselves Monatons or Manhattans, a term 
 which it will be perceived was merely geographical. On 
 the colonization of the country, these Manhattanese or 
 Monatons were found to be but one of the numerous family 
 of Mohegans. 
 
 §. Importance of a just philological Classification of 
 the tribes, and the connected question of original pre- 
 cedency among them. 
 
 There is still another preliminary remark, which the com- 
 mittee have to offer, before preceding to the consideration 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 13 
 
 of particular names. The term Algonquin was introduced 
 by the early missionary writers on the American languages, 
 on the first discovery and settlement of the country. By it 
 they comprehended a very large family of tribes, who, 
 although distinguished by dialectic differences, and living 
 at widely remote points, united in the general scheme of 
 utterance, which is peculiar to these tribes. The sounds 
 of this language are soft, its vocabulary comparatively full, 
 and its forms of combination very rich and expressive. It 
 has been deemed, so to say, the court language of the 
 Tribes. The term itself is a matter of little consequence, 
 any more than as furthering the purposes of precision in 
 generalization, and might be readily exchanged for any 
 other term equally euphonous, were it proposed. Nothing 
 of the kind was offered to philologists previous to the 
 year 1818, when the late Mr. Du Ponceau, a man eminent 
 in philology, in presenting some letters on the Delaware 
 language, to the American Philosophical Society, from the 
 Rev. John Heckewelder, called the use of the term in ques- 
 tion, and suggested, as a generic, the word Lenapee. This 
 was done, on the theory of justice to this tribe, who affirm 
 themselves to be the oldest member of the family ; and not 
 from any other objection to the prevailing generic. The 
 Lenapees certainly have claims to tribal priority, among 
 this race, within a circle, after we have, in the propagation 
 of the race northeastwardly, crossed the Susquehanna and 
 the Chesapeake ; but before this claim can be admitted to 
 include all who are comprehended by the term Algonquin, 
 or its adjunct Algic, we should know what the Powhattans 
 would have had to say on this head. Where a question so 
 general is mooted, we should also be pleased to hear what 
 the old Apalachfans {or Appalachites,) or the still existing 
 iRoauois, might have had to urge, by way of corrobo- 
 ration, or denial ! The numerous family of the Algics 
 of New England, certainly looked to the southwest, as 
 the place of their origin, but they had no traditions 
 which linked them with the Lenno Lenapees. They 
 were rather affiliated, it would seem, with the Metoacs 
 2 
 
14 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 of Long Island,* and with the Mohegans of the banks 
 of the Hudson. f By the traditions of the Yendots or 
 Wyandots, who are of the lineage of the Iroquois, the 
 North American Indians had a unity of origin, and the 
 Wyandots were, originally, placed at the head of the tribes. 
 In this traditionary account, they merge the distinctions of 
 language, as if it were something of an accidental charac- 
 ter. They regard the Lenapees, as an uncle's children, 
 and call them nephews. J 
 
 Few persons have written, at large, on the principles of 
 the Indian languages, and the reason of Mr. Du Ponceau's 
 suggestions not having been generally adopted by histo- 
 rians and popular writers, is probably to be found, in part, 
 in the attachment of waiters to existing terms, generally 
 known, as well as to the less pleasing rythm of the new 
 term. So far as historical causes w'eigh, the objection lies 
 in the heretofore restricted use of the word Lenapee, which 
 had been exclusively applied to designate a particular tribe ; 
 and not like the word Algonquin, a race of people. 
 
 Mr. Gallatin, in his " S\'nopsis of the Indian Tribes," 
 published by the American Antiquarian Society of Massa- 
 chusetts, in 1836, proposed to accommodate the question to 
 philologists by writing the two terms, and denominating 
 this radical stock " Algonkin-Lenapee." The term accu- 
 rately reaches the object, but is done at the expense of 
 words. Few writers will adopt two words for one, espe- 
 cially if the one be previously well known and approved, 
 even if the compound is in other respects preferable. In 
 the remarks which are to follow, the committee may, it is 
 thought, secure for their investigations, the character of 
 philological precision, without entering the field of dogmati- 
 cal discussion. Each term will be considered the equiva- 
 lent of the other. They refer to the same family, the same 
 principles, and the same generic traits of history and lan- 
 guage. The Mincees of the west bank of the Hudson, were 
 so nearly allied to the Delawares that they might be called 
 
 ♦ Rhode Island, His. Trans, t Gov. Trumbull's letter. \ One6ta, No. 4. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 15 
 
 Delawares. But, while this is admitted, the committee can- 
 not consent to call the Mon-a-tons or the Mohegans of the 
 east shore Delawares, as has been sometimes vaguely done. 
 Such a usage is as far from precision, as it would be, to call 
 the Panees or Mandans, Sioux ; the Wyandots, Iroquois, or 
 the Miamis or Shawnoes, Chippewas, merely because the 
 designated groups respectively speak elementary dialects of 
 three separate generic languages. 
 
 § Historical and philological notice of the minci and 
 mohegans, the two . leading tribes, who inhabited the 
 valley of the hudson. 
 
 In taking up the Indian terminology of the State, in de- 
 tail, the first subjects that call for preliminary attention are 
 the terms Mohegan, and Minci, the names of the two tribes 
 of Algonquin lineage, who inhabited the valley of the 
 Hudson, between New York and Albany. 
 
 Mohegan is a word, the meaning of which is not explained 
 by the early writers, but if we may trust the deductions of 
 philology, it needs create little uncertainty. In the Mohe- 
 gan, as spoken at the present time by their lineal descen- 
 dants, the Stockbridges of Wisconsin, Maihtshow, is the 
 name of the common wolf. It is called, in cognate dialects 
 of the Algonquin, Myegan by the Kenistenos, and Myeengun 
 by the Chippewas, Otawas, and Pottowattomies. In the 
 old Algonquin, as given by La Hontan, it is Mahingan, and 
 we perceive, that this was the term employed by the early 
 French writers for the Mohegans. In the language of the 
 Indian priests or medais, a mystical use of the names of 
 various objects in the animated creation is made, in order 
 to 6lothe their arts with a degree of respect and authority, 
 which ignorant nations are ready to pay to whatever they 
 do not fully understand, in other words, that which is mys- 
 terious.^ Thus, in the medicen songs of the Odjibwas, a wolf 
 is called, not jNIyeengun, the popular term, but Moh-hwag. 
 It is believed the priests of the ancient Mohegans made 
 similar distortion of their words, for similar ends, and that 
 
16 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 the terms Moh hi Kan, and Moh hin gan, used by the »early 
 French missionary writei'S for this tribe, furnish the origin of 
 the term. The term itself, it is to be understood, by %vhich 
 the tribe is known to us, is not the true Indian, but has 
 been shorn of a part of its sound, by the early Dutch, 
 French, and English writers. The modern tribe of the Mo- 
 hegans, to whom allusion has been made, called them- 
 selves MuHHEKANiEw. This is, manifestly, a compound de- 
 clarative phrase, and not a simple nominative, and is equiv- 
 alent to the phrase, I am a Mohegan. It is in accordance 
 both with religious custom, and the usage of the Indian 
 priesthood, to infer a unity of superstitious practices in 
 nearly affiliated tribes. In this manner, the w^ord " Mohe- 
 gan," was used to denote, not a common wolf, but the caries 
 lupus, under the supposed influence of medical or necro- 
 mantic arts. In other words, Mohegan was a phrase to de- 
 note an enchanted wolf, or a wolf of supernatural power. 
 This was the badge or arms of the tribe, rather than the 
 name of the tribe itself. And this, also, it may be inferred, 
 constituted originally, the point of distinction, between them 
 and the Minci, or wolf tribe proper. 
 
 The affinities of the Mohegans with the Minci, or Mon- 
 cees, on the west banks of the Hudson, and through them 
 with the Delawares, are apparent, in the language, and 
 were well recognized at the era of the settlement. The 
 Mincees, as we have before intimated, were one of the origin- 
 al families or the tribe of the Lenno Lenapees, from whom, 
 however, they had separated before the Discovery, and 
 spread themselves over the present area of New Jersey. 
 They were the first remove in the chain of ethnological 
 affinities. They had lost from their language, the sound of 
 the letter L, so abundant in the parent language, and sub- 
 stituted n for it, as their geographical names prove. They 
 were, however, in no accurate sense, either philelogically 
 or historically, Mohegans. The latter constituted, so. far as 
 we can judge, the second remove in tribal progression, or na- 
 tionality. They were at war with the Mincees on the lower 
 Jersey shores of the river, yet it is clear, that w hen a general 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 17 
 
 ouncil of sachems was called at the fort of New Amster- 
 am by Governor Keift in 1645, there were present dele- 
 ates from the Tappansees, and some other western villa- 
 es.* These villages, it is equally manifest, were in subjec- 
 on to, or mider the jurisdiction of leading sachems of the 
 lanhattanese or others in close alliance with them, living 
 t Sin Sinck, or at higher points on the Westchester coast. 
 
 § General line of demarcation between these two 
 aiBEs, north and south. 
 
 These two tribes, were sub-divided into numerous bands, 
 ich known by a distinctive name, and each assmning, ac- 
 jrding to their strength or position, some powers of sove- 
 dgnty. The river Hudson constituted the general boundary 
 etween them, and across its waters, war parties were con- 
 ucted, from time to time, and local conquests, or visits of 
 jtribution made. There is not much fixity now in the boun- 
 aries, and powers of any of our existing tribes, and there 
 3uld have been as little then. The minor bands of each 
 arty were mere varieties in name, having the same politi- 
 il relation to each other, that one of our modern town- 
 lips along the banks of the river, has to another. As a 
 eneral remark, all the bands of the west shores were 
 [incees, ^all on the east Mohegans. They lived onl ill 
 ;rms with each other, and w^ere frequently engaged in 
 pen hostilities. Bands of the Minci type, have left their 
 ames, on the west shores of the Hudson, from Navisink, on 
 le sea shore, to, and above the influx of the Wallkill. They 
 Dread over all East Jersey. The line between them and 
 le Lenni Lenapees or Delawares proper, it is not easy to 
 etermine. Mr. Gallatin, in his ethnological map, places 
 : at the falls of the Raritan, and thence in the direction of 
 le falls of the Delaware. Such a division of authorily is 
 ery plausibly drawn from one of their ancient treaties.f 
 
 The Mohegans on the east shore, have, on the other hand, 
 
 * De Vries, N. Y. His. Col. New Series. t Archalogia Americana. 
 
 2* 
 
18 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 left their names on that bank. They had departed from 
 the standard of utterance, in using the sound of th, and in 
 giving geographical names their local termination in uk^ 
 instead of ink. The language as used by them and by the 
 analogous bands east of them, was also more consonantal. 
 They had, as before premised of the eastern Algics gener- 
 ally, lost the 1, and the musical sound of oa, so often heard 
 in the Lenapee, as in the verb Ahoala, to love. They were 
 characteristically a stern and warlike people. This was 
 particularly true of the early Mon-a-tons, who warred 
 east upon the Matoacs, and west upon the Sanhicans, a 
 band of the Mincees. There is but.little reason to doubt that 
 the Mohegan stock extended eastward across the sea shores 
 of Connecticut, to the boundaries of the Narragansetts, 
 and that the Mohegans and the indomitable Pequots were 
 originally, one people. This opinion was affirmed by the 
 Connecticut government, 1474, when they declared the title 
 of the Pequots to extend to the banks of the Hudson. Had 
 this argument been reversed, and the title of the Mohegans 
 of the Hudson, been asserted up to the west line of Rhode 
 Island, the force of it would appear to have been more in 
 consonance with the probable events of history. As a 
 question of origin merely, it must naturally have been de- 
 cided in favor of the parent source, which from all known 
 tradition was west. It was a question, at that day, whether 
 the Mohegans were originally Pequots, or the Pequots, Mo- 
 hegans. Gov. Clinton, in his discourse before this Society, 
 in 1814, inclines to the Mohegan type of supremacy, and 
 this opinion is certainly favored by well known events in 
 the early history of Connecticut. The rise and dynasty of 
 Uncas, can be regarded in no other light, but as a resump- 
 tion and appeal to, by him, of the original generic and true 
 name, while he left Sassacus to perish with the ill-starred 
 soubriquet of Pequot. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OP THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 19 
 
 § Question of supremacy between the ALcoNauiN and 
 Iroquois race at the era of the settlement of New York. 
 
 But however, the Mohegans and their western neighbors, 
 the Mincees differed, both in their language and otherwise, 
 they were united in their variance with the Iroquois. The 
 Hudson river, which constituted a national boundary be- 
 tween them, served only as an avenue of descent for their 
 more fierce and powerful enemy from the north. The dis- 
 covery of the Hudson and arrival of the Dutch in this con- 
 dition of the affair, were fortunate events for these two 
 tribes of so-called Mixed or River Indians. Obvious prin- 
 ciples of policy led the Dutch to sustain the latter. It was 
 equally also their policy to maintain a peace with the for- 
 mer. Their prosperity depended upon the Fur Trade, and 
 these nations were the elements of it. A noted and long 
 remembered convocation of the chiefs of all parties, took 
 place about twenty-one years after Hudson first dropped 
 anchor in the river, say in 1630, or about fifteen years after 
 the building of the first fort at Albany. It occurred but a 
 few miles from fort Orange, on the banks of a stream then 
 called the Towasentha, flowing in from the Helderberg 
 mountains. This stream is known in modern geography as 
 Norman's Kill. At this council, a general peace was made, 
 between the Mohegans, the Mincees, the Lenni Lenapees 
 and the Iroquois. The supreme power of the latter was ac- 
 knowledged, as it had been obtained in former conquests 
 on the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna. This 
 general peace and alliance was established, under the super- 
 vision of the Dutch authorities, and the right of the Iroquois 
 affirmed to preside over and convey the title, in all cessions 
 of Indian territory. This right all the southwestern tribes 
 recognized, as far south as the Kentucky river, the title to 
 the north bank of which, was ceded to the whites by the 
 Iroquois.* The Lenapees had long before been conquered by 
 these " Romans of the North.'| and dropt the war-club. And 
 
 * Imlay's Hist. Kentucky. t Clinton's Discourse. 
 
20 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 this is, in truth, the whole foundation, for that precious 
 piece of fanciful reminiscence, in which a subjugated peo- 
 ple have endeavored to solace their pride and hide their de- 
 feat, by the tradition put forth by the Lenapees that they 
 had voluntarily assumed the attitude of Peace Makers. 
 Or in symbolic language, put on the Petticoat.* 
 
 It would require, however, greater means of research 
 than the Committee has been able to bring to the task, to 
 tell when ? or where ? in the whole history of Indian nego- 
 ciations they were ever consulted or employed by other 
 tribes as ambassadors of peace. The Iroquois would not 
 permit them, even to sell land, which they occupied on the 
 Susquehanna, without their concurrence and consent. f It 
 has been equally difficult to perceive at what time or place 
 they ever omitted to take up the tomahawk, when their 
 position rendered success probable. 
 
 Some apology may seem to be due for taking so general 
 a view of the historical traits of the territorial area to be 
 commented on, but it is believed that by this course, the 
 Committee will be relieved of embarrassment in its progress. 
 Nothing now remains but to indicate the plan of procedure. 
 There will be an advantage, it is believed, so far, at least, 
 as relates to the labor of investigation, by taking up the 
 State geographically or in sections. 
 
 1. Long Island is sufficient in extent, and in the number 
 and separation of its aboriginal tribes, to justify the labors 
 of a separate report. 
 
 2. The tide waters of the Hudson constitutes another 
 separate and ample field for study. 
 
 3. The Valley of the Mohawk is rich in accessible and 
 highly interesting aboriginal associations. 
 
 4. The sources of the Delaware and the Susquehanna, 
 require to be investigated for their names, through many 
 volumes, and appear to embrace materials enough for a 
 distinct report. 
 
 5. The northern sources of the Hudson, of which the 
 
 * Golden, t J. Heckewelder Historical Com. Am. Phi. Transactions. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 21 
 
 true discover}^ and exploration, is, to a great extent, modern, 
 and is connected with the State Geological Survey, de- 
 mands besides these documents local aid, in gathering up 
 its traditions of names. 
 
 6. The borders of lake Champlain, and the valley of the 
 St. Lawrence, must also be investigated with particular 
 reference to the fact of their' early Indian occupancy and 
 comparatively recent date of white settlement. 
 
 7. The wide field of western New York, beyond the 
 Stanwix Summit, presents, in its sonorous vocabulary of 
 names, a still more interesting section of philological re- 
 search. Each of these fields of observation, demand time 
 and care, with every aid of books, and maps, and reference 
 to early surveys, title deeds, and traditions. Little more 
 can, indeed, be now attempted, than to make a beginning, 
 and it is hoped that the amount of time demanded, and the 
 difficulty of acquiring documents, or even enlisting personal 
 aid, will plead some indulgence, for the little that is 
 offered. 
 
 § Indian terminology of the islands and bay of New York. 
 
 The first name, which occurs, is that of the Hudson river. 
 It does not appear that the discoverer thought of giving it 
 his own name. In the narrative of his voyage, it is called 
 the Great river of the Mountains, or simply, the Great river. 
 This term was simply translated by his employers, the 
 servants of the Dutch West India Company, who, on the 
 early maps of Nova Belgica, called it Groote Riviere. It 
 was afterwards called Nassau, after the reigning House, 
 but this name was not persevered in. At a subsequent 
 time, they gave it the name of Mauritius, after Prince 
 Maurice, but this name, if it was ever much in vogue, either 
 did not prevail against, or was early exchanged for the 
 popular term of North River — a name, which it emphati- 
 cally bore to distinguish it from the Lenapihittuck or Dela- 
 ware, which they called the South river. [Zuydt Rivier.] 
 That the name of Mauritius was but partially introduced, 
 
22 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 is indicated by the reply made by the New England autho- 
 rities to a letter respecting boundaries of Gov. Kieft, in 
 1646, in which they declare, in answer to his complaint of 
 encroachments on its settlements, their entire ignorance of 
 any river bearing this name. 
 
 Neither of the Indian names, by which it was called, 
 appear to have found much favor. The Mohegans called 
 it Shatemuc. Shaita, in the cognate dialect of the Odjibwa, 
 means a pelican. It cannot be affirmed, to denote the same 
 object in this dialect, nor is it known that the pelican has 
 ever been seen on this river. Uc is the ordinary inflection 
 for locality. The Mincees, occupying the west banks, called it 
 Mohegan-ittuck. The syllable itt, before uck, is one of 
 those transitive forms, by which the action of the nomina- 
 tive is engrafted upon the objective, without communi- 
 cating any new meaning. The signification of the term is, 
 Mohegan river. The Iroquois, (as given by the interpreter 
 ■ John Bleeker, and communicated by the late Dr. Samuel L. 
 Mitchill in a letter to Dr. Miller in 1811,) called Ca ho ha 
 ta te a,* — that is to say, if we have apprehended the word, 
 the great river having mountains beyond the Cahoh or 
 Cahoes Falls. 
 
 The three prominent Indian names for the Hudson are, 
 therefore, the Mohegan, the Chatemuc, and the Cahotatea. 
 
 The river appears to have been also called, by other 
 tribes of the Iroquois confederacy, Sanataty. The word 
 ataty, here, is the same written atatea, above, and is 
 descriptive of various scenes according to its prefix. The 
 English first named the river, the Hudson, after the surren- 
 der of the colony in 1664. It does not appear, under this 
 name, in any Dutch work or record, which has been ex- 
 amined. It may be observed, that the term has not 
 exclusively prevailed, to the present day, among New 
 Yorkers in the river counties, where the name of North 
 River is still popular. It will be recollected, as a proof of 
 the prevailing custom, that Fulton called his first boat, to 
 test the triumph of steam, *' The North River." 
 
 * Vide Dr. Miller's Historical Discourse. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 23 
 
 If the river failed to bear to future times, either of its 
 original names, the island, as the nominative of the city, 
 was equally unfortunate, the more so, it is conceived, as the 
 name of the city became the name of the state. Regret 
 has been expressed, that some one, of the sonorous and ap- 
 propriate Indian names of the west, had not been chosen to 
 designate the state. The colonists, M'ere but little regardful 
 of questions of this kind. Both the Dutch in 1609 and the 
 English in 1664, came with precisely the same force of 
 national prepossession — the first, in favor of Amsterdam, 
 and the second in favor of New York — both connected 
 with the belittling adjective " New." It is characteristic of 
 the English, that they have sought to perpetuate the re- 
 membrance of their victories, conquests and discoveries, by 
 these geographical names. And the word New York, if it 
 redound less to their military or naval glory, than Blen- 
 hiem, Trafalgar and Waterloo, may be cited to show, that 
 this was an early developed trait of character of the Eng- 
 lish, abroad as well as at home. It would be well, indeed, 
 if their descendants in America had been a little more alive, 
 to the influence of this trait. Those M'^ho love the land, and 
 cherish its nationalities, would at least have been spared, 
 in witnessing the growth and development of this great 
 city, the continued repetition of foreign, petty or vulgar 
 names, for our streets and squares and public resorts, while 
 such names as Saratoga and Ticonderoga, Niagara and 
 Ontario, Iosco and Owasco, are never thought of* 
 
 The Indians called the island Mon-a-ton — dropping the 
 locol inflection uk. The word is variously written by early 
 writers. The sound as pronounced to me in 1827 by Me- 
 toxon, a Mohegan chief, is Mon ah tan uk, a phrase which 
 is descriptive of the whirlpool of Hellgate. Mon or man, 
 as here written, is the radix of the adjective bad, carrying, 
 as it does, in its multiplied forms, the various meanings 
 of violent, dangerous, &c., when applied in compounds. 
 Ah tun, is a generic term for a channel, or stream of run- 
 
 * Vide Letter to Hon. J. Harper, appended. 
 
24 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 niiig water. Uk, denotes locality, and also plurality. When 
 the tribe had thus denoted this passage, which is, confessed- 
 ly, the most striking and characteristic geographical feature 
 of the region, they called the island near it, to imply the 
 Anglacized term, Man-hat-tan, and themselves Mon-a-tuns, 
 that is to say, " People of the Whirlpool." It is well known 
 that the Indian tribes, have, generally, taken their distinc- 
 tive names from geographical features. The Narragan- 
 setts,,as we are told by Roger Williams, took that name, 
 from a small island off the coast.* Massachusetts, accord- 
 ing to the same authority, signifies the Blue Hills, and is 
 derived from the appearance of lands at sea. Mississaga, 
 signifies they live at the mouth large river, and by an 
 inflection, the people who live at the mouth of the large 
 river or waters. Onondago, means the people who live 
 on the hill. Oneida, the people who sprang from a rock, 
 &c. These names afford no clue to nationalty, they pre- 
 serve no ethnological chain. 
 
 The traditionf that this island derives its name from the 
 accidental circumstance of the intoxication of the Indians 
 on Hudson's first visit, in 1609, is a sheer inference, unsup- 
 ported by philology. That the tradition of such an event 
 was preserved and related to the early missionaries by the 
 Mohegan Indians, admits of no doubt, nor is there more, 
 that the island was referred to as the place where their 
 ancestors first obtained the taste of ardent spirits. That 
 the island had no name prior, to 1G09, or if well known by 
 a characteristic name, that this elder name was then 
 dropped and a new name bestowed, in allusion to this 
 circumstance of the intoxication, is not only improbable, on 
 known principles, but is wholly unsustained, as will have 
 been perceived by the above etymology. The word for 
 intoxication, or dizziness from drink, in the Algonquin, and 
 with little change in all the cognate dialects, is Ke wush hwa 
 bee. The verb to drink in the same dialects is Mm e hw'd, 
 
 * Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Vol. 3. 
 t Collections New York Historical Society, vol. 1. New Series. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 25 
 
 in the Mohegan " Minahn" — words having none of the ne- 
 cessary elements of this compound. Very great care is, 
 indeed, required in recording Indian words, to be certain 
 that the word given, is actually expressive of the object of 
 inquiry. Some curious and amusing examples of mistakes 
 of this kind might be given, did it comport with the limits of 
 this report. 
 
 There were several Indian villages, or places of resort, on 
 the island of Mon-a-tun, for which the original names have 
 survived. The extreme point of land, between the junction 
 of the East and North rivers, of which the Battery is now a 
 part, was called Kapsee — and within the memory of per- 
 sons still living was known as "the Copsie point" — a term 
 which appears to denote a safe place of landing, formed by 
 eddy waters. There was a village called Sapokanican, on 
 the shores of the Hudson, at the present site of Greenwich. 
 Corlear's Hook was called Naghtongk.* The particle 
 tonk, here, denotes sand. A tract of meadow land on the 
 north end of the island, near Kingsbridge, w^as called 
 Muscoota, tjjat is, meadow or grass land. Warpoes was a 
 term bestowed on a piece of elevated ground, situated 
 above and beyond the small lake or pond called the 
 KoLCK. This term is, apparently, a derivative from Waw- 
 Taose, a hare. 
 
 The islands around the city had their appropriate names. 
 Long Island was called Metoac, after the name of the 
 Metoacks, the principal tribe located on it. It is thus 
 called by Van Der Donck in 1656, and in all the subsequent 
 maps of authority, down to Evans', in 1755. Smith calls it 
 Meitowacks. In Gov. Clinton's discourse, it is printed 
 Meilowacks, but this is evidently a typographical error. 
 
 Staten Island, we are informed by De Vries, was occu- 
 pied by the Mon-a-tans, who called it Monocknong with a 
 verbal prefix. The termination is ong, denotes locality. 
 Manon is the ironwood tree, ack denotes a tree, or trunk, 
 and admits a prefix from " manadud," bad. By enquiry it 
 
 Nechtank (Dutch notation.) 
 
 3 
 
26 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 does not appear that the ironwood, although present, ever 
 existed in sufficient abundance to render the name from 
 that characteristic* The other, it is too late to investigate. 
 It is believed the expression had an implied meaning, and 
 denoted the Haunted Woods. 
 
 Thus far the colonial maps and records, so far as they 
 have fallen under the committee's notice. The vocabulary 
 of the Mohegans affords, however, a few other terms, the 
 application of which may be well assumed from their 
 etymology. Of this kind is the term Naosh, for Sandy 
 Hook, meaning a point surpassing others. Minnisais, or the 
 lesser island, for Bedlow's island ; and Kioshk, or Gull 
 island, for Ellis's island. The heights of Brooklyn are 
 graphically described in the term Ihpetonga; that is, high 
 sandy banks. 
 
 The geological structure of the island was such as to 
 bring it to a much narrower point, than it now occupies. 
 By the recent excavations for the foundations of Trinity 
 Church, and the commercial buildings now in the process 
 of erection on the site of the old Presbyteria* Church in 
 Wall-street, the principal stratum is seen to be of coarse 
 grey sea sand, capped with a similar soil, mixed with vege- 
 table mould and feruginous oxide. From the make of 
 the land, the Indian path, on the Trinity plateau, forked at 
 the foot of the Park, and proceeded east of the small lake 
 called the Kolck [Agiegon] to the rise of ground at Chat- 
 ham square. Here, or not far from it, was the eminence 
 called Warpoes, probably the site of a village, and so 
 named, from its chief. The stream and marsh existing 
 where Canal street now runs, gave this eastern tendency 
 to the main path. At or beyond Warpoes, another fork in 
 the path became necessary, to reach the banks of the Hud- 
 son at the Indian village of Lapinikan, now Greenwich. 
 In this route laid the eminence of Ishpatena, late Richmond 
 Hill, at the corner of Charlton and Yarick streets. The 
 path leading from the interjunction at Warpoes, or Chat- 
 
 * MS. letter from R. M. Tyson, Esq. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 27 
 
 ham square, to Nahtonk, or Corlear's Hook, had no interme- 
 diate village, of which the name has survived. This 
 portion of the island was covered with a fine forest of nut 
 wood, oaks and other hard- wood species, interspersed with 
 grassy glades, about the sites of the Indian villages. The 
 upper part of the island was densely wooded. Above 40th 
 street it was unfavorable for any purpose but hunting, and 
 much of the middle part of it, as between 5th and 8th Ave- 
 nues, was either shoe-deep under water or naturally 
 sphagnous. This arose, as is seen, at this day, from a 
 clayey stratum, which retains the moisture, whereas the 
 whole island below this location, particularly below the 
 brow of the sycnitic formation of 37th street, &c., consisted 
 of gravel and sand, which absorbed the moisture and render- 
 ed it the most favorable site for building and occupation. 
 On the margin of the Hudson, the water reached, tradition 
 tells us, to Greenwich-street. There is a yellow painted 
 wooden house still standing at the northeast corner of 
 Courtland and Greenwich streets, which had the water 
 near to it. Similar tradition assures us, that Broad street 
 was the site of a marsh and small creek. The same may 
 be said of the foot of Maiden lane, once Fly Market, and of 
 the outlet of the Muskeeg or Swamp, now Ferry street. 
 Pearl street marked the winding margin of the East river. 
 Foundations dug here reach the ancient banks of oyster 
 shells. AsHiBic denotes the probable narrow ridge or ancient 
 cliff north of Beekman street, which bounded the marsh 
 below. OciToc is a term for the heighth of land in 
 Broadway, at Niblo's ; Abik, a rock rising up in the Bat- 
 tery; Penabic, Mt. Washington, or the Comb Mountain. 
 These notices, drawn from philology, and, in part, the 
 earlier geographical accounts of New Belgium, might be 
 extended to a few other points, which are clearly denoted ; 
 but are deemed sufficient to sustain the conclusions, which 
 the committee have arrived at, that the main configuration 
 of the leading thoroughfares of the city, from the ancient 
 canoe-place at Copsie or the Battery, extending north to 
 the Park, and thence to Chatham square and the Bowery, 
 
28 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 and west to Tivoli Garden, &c., were ancient roads, in the 
 early times of Holland supremacy, which followed the 
 primary Indian foot paths. 
 
 Governor's island bore the name of Nut island, during 
 the Holland supremacy, in Dutch Nutten; but whether, as 
 is suspected, this was a translation of the Indian Pecanuc, 
 or " nut trees," is not certain. As a general remark, it may 
 be said that the names of the Mon-a-tons, or Manhattanese, 
 were not euphonous, certainly less so than those of the Dela- 
 ware or Iroquois. 
 
 § Aboriginal names of the valley of the Hudson between 
 New York and Albany ; east banks, as high as the mouth 
 op the Mohawk. 
 
 We are now prepared to ascend the Hudson. The first 
 name of importance, above the island, is Croton — a name 
 of classic sound but unquestionably derived from the Indian, 
 though a corruption of the original, and not originally ap- 
 plied by them to the river. In a deed dated in 1685, which 
 is quoted by Judge Benson, the river is called Kitchawan — 
 a term which is descriptive of a large and swift flowing 
 current. Croton, as stated by the same authority, is a cor- 
 ruption of the name of a Chief, who lived and exercised his 
 authority, at the mouth of this stream. It is clearly, a de- 
 rivative from Kenotin, or Knoten or, as it is often used 
 without the pronoun prefixed, Notin, meaning, in either 
 case, the wind, or a tempest. It is a man's name, still com- 
 mon in the west and north. The first Indian village above 
 this stream was called Wickquaskeck, or the Place of the 
 Bark Kettle. Above it, on the same shore, was the village 
 of Alipkonck, that is a Place of Elms. This part of the 
 shores of the Hudson, assumes a rocky character — the banks 
 immediately opposite consist of a continuous elevated line 
 of precipices, in the well-known Palisadoes ; but the for- 
 mation on the east banks developes itself in broken, pro- 
 tuberant rocks. Quarries of the dolomite and white coarse 
 grained marble, are opened here. There is nothing more 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 29 
 
 characteristic of the structure of the coast, than its " muni- 
 tions of rocks." The judgment of the aborigines is vindi- 
 cated in the name of " OsiNsiNo" bestowed upon their village 
 seated on this coast. This is the origin of the word Sing 
 Sing. It is written on some of the earlier maps, Sinsing, 
 and SiNsiNCK. It is a derivative from Ossin, a stone, and 
 ing, a place. This shore was inhabited, during the times 
 of Governor Kieft by a band of the Manhattans or Mon-a- 
 tuns, called the Sintsings, who sent a delegate to the general 
 council held at Fort Amsterdam, on the 30th August, 1645. 
 
 Mr. Irving has preserved in the word Pocantico, the name 
 of a tributary stream of the Hudson above this point, in 
 Westchester county. On early maps, the next Indian vil- 
 lages, in their succession, are, Kiskisko, Pasquashic, and 
 NoAPAiM. There was also, along the east shores of the 
 Tappan, the village of Kastoniuck, (a term still surviving 
 in the opposite village of Niuck or Nyack.) All these were 
 situated south of the Highlands. The Highlands east, were 
 occupied by a band of Indians called the Wiccapees, or 
 as sometimes written Weckees. They were of the tribe of 
 the Waoranacks. Above them, and along that part of the 
 river, which now composes the county of Dutchess, lived 
 the derivative tribe of the Abingas, or Wappingers. Fish- 
 kill, which constituted the chief locality, was called Mat- 
 TEAWAN, a term still retained. It is said, in the popular 
 traditions of the county, to signify " good furs," as the stream 
 was noted, in early days, for its peltries.* It is a derivation 
 as the term plainly denotes, from Metai, a magician, or 
 medicine-man, and wia7i, a skin, and means, in this connec- 
 tion, not simply " good fur," or a good skin, but a charmed, 
 or enchanted skin. Much of the medical power of all the 
 early Indian priests and doctors — the two practices were 
 united — was devoted to the arts of medical magic. They 
 affected, by the power of magic or secret enchantment, 
 to govern the movements of animals in the chase, and taught 
 their followers the art of hunting by charms, as the cognate 
 
 » R. G. Rankin, Esq. 
 
 3* 
 
30 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 tribes still do, in the west, and north-west, where they often 
 exact high fees for these services. The true import and im- 
 portance of this name, will appear from these hints. One 
 such name is, in fact, sufficient, in its full development, to 
 invest the scenery of the country, with the poetic associa- 
 tions of these ancient, wild foresters. 
 
 The stream now called Wappinger's Creek, was in the 
 same dialect, called the Waha-manessing — a term, having 
 its ground-form in minnis, an island, with the common local 
 inflection in ing ; but without particular enquiry into the 
 geographical characteristics of this stream, its nominative 
 prefix, in waha, could not be satisfactorily determined. 
 
 There is a prominent mountain range, above the High- 
 lands, east of the Hudson, which rises in Dutchess county 
 and extends northwardly through the back part of Colum- 
 bia. This range separates, geologically, the upper part 
 of the valleys of the Hudson and the Housatonic. The 
 earlier orthography of the Indian name for it is Tachkanic. 
 It is more commonly written, at this day, and with some 
 advantage, while the original sound is essentially preserved, 
 Taconick. Another mountain spur, of a detached character, 
 in the south part of Dutchess, is called the Shenandoah 
 mountain. Tradition tells us, that it is so called from the 
 name of a band, or sub-tribe of Indians who inhabited this 
 part of the county, and who, at the era of the American 
 Revolution, were reduced to one man.* The word is the 
 same which is applied to the valley of Virginia, having its 
 exit into the Potomac at Harper's Ferry ; and may be cited, 
 among some other philological evidences, to be found in the 
 valley of the Hudson and its extensive bay and seaward 
 islands, of the early transfusion of the Powhattanic type of 
 the Algonquin, among the more prominent and prevalent 
 Lenapee dialects of the southern part of our State. By a 
 tradition of the Mohegans, it is perceived that intercommu- 
 nications, and strong personal friendships existed, between 
 
 » MSS. Letter of L. M. Arnold. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OP THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 31 
 
 some of the tribes, thus widely separated, prior to the era 
 of the colonization.* 
 
 The name of Poughkeepsie, is variously written. It is 
 spelt, on Evans' map of 1775, Pakepsy ; in Loskiel, Peekipsi. 
 Local tradition, supported by the examination of ancient 
 title deeds from the Indians, reveals the original orthogra- 
 phy of the word in Apokeepsing. There is, at the mouth of 
 the Fallkill, a sheltered inlet, and safe harbor for small 
 boats. As the reach below is wide, and often subjected the 
 Indian canoes and small craft, to peril, this shelter became 
 a prominent place of safety, extensively known to the tribes 
 along the river. It is this geographical feature, which is 
 described by the term Apokeepsing. It denotes, graphically, 
 the locality, and its being a place of shelter from storms. 
 The present orthography of the word, is unnecessarily redun- 
 dant, in the first syllable. It has dropped, in conformity 
 with general English and Dutch usage in adopting Indian 
 words, the local inflection in ing ; which is, to us, a redun- 
 dancy. In other respects, the original is well preserved. 
 
 The Fallkill was called the Winnakee. The earliest 
 patent was granted to Robert Sanders and Myndert Her- 
 mance, of Albany, dated October 20th, 1686. In this patent 
 the falls are called Pondowickrain. This fall is near the 
 mouth of the stream, and in full view from the Hudson. 
 
 Crumelbow Creek was called Nancopacanioc. Caspar 
 Creek, a little below Barnegat, five miles from the village, 
 was called PiETAwisauAssic. Bands of the Minnisinks, from 
 the west shores, were intermingled in this part of Dutchess. 
 
 A band, or sub tribe called Sepascoots, lived at Rhinebeck. 
 They had their principal seat 18 miles north of Poughkeep- 
 sie, and 3 miles east of the Hudson river. At Redhook 
 Landing, there was another clan or large band. Tradition 
 asserts, that a great battle was fought near the latter place, 
 between the River Indians and the Five Nations. The first 
 settlers, it is said, still saw the bones of the slain. 
 
 For the present eligible site of Hudson, and the bay 
 
 'VideOneota, p. 105. 
 
32 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 and mountain elevation south of it, no aboriginal name has 
 been met with, although such doubtless existed. Generally- 
 speaking, the Mohegan terms were of greater length than 
 it was found convenient to employ, and the Dutch, who in 
 this respect, coincided with the English, preferred shorter 
 names. 
 
 Kinderhook is of Dutch origin. The term is a derivative 
 from Kinders, children, and Hook, a point or corner. Tradition 
 asserts that it originated, in the era of its settlement, from 
 the circumstance of the occupant of a well-known house on 
 the point of land called Kinderhook Landing, having a 
 numerous family of children.* There is a small lake in 
 Columbia county, bearing the Indian name of Copake. A 
 township of the same county, is named, after it, Copake. 
 A well known valley, with a small stream in the township 
 of Ghent, in the same county, is called by its original name 
 
 of SaOMPOMICK. 
 
 The Mohegans of this bank of the Hudson, extended their 
 villages, up to a point opposite to, and also above the junction 
 of the Mohawk, covering the entire area of the present coun- 
 ties of Columbia and Rensselaer. The seat of their council 
 fire, was, for a length of time, at Schodac. This word appears 
 to be a derivative from ishcoda, a meadow, or fire-plain, per- 
 haps, mediately, through the word straw, and akee, land. Hoo- 
 sic may be traced to Wudyoo, a mountain, and abic, a rock. 
 A branch of the Hoosic, was called Shackook. It had a fall 
 called Qui-auEK.f As the settlements pressed upon this 
 tribe, they retired eastwardly to the valley of the Housa- 
 tonic, in Massachusetts, where they came under the notice 
 of the Society for the propagating the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts, and were, for a long period, under the instruction of 
 the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, and other missionaries. 
 As the place of their principal concentration, was called 
 Stockbridge, this term attached itself to the tribe and their 
 descendants in the west, are now known to us by it. At 
 
 * Verb. Com. of M. Butler, Esq. of Kinderhook, also, Spofford's Gazetteer. 
 t Cain's Reports. Hoosic Patentj 3 vol. Query for analogy hunters, Quick- 
 Quick ! 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 33 
 
 Stockbridge, the Mohegans, were converted to Christianity, 
 abandoned the chase, as a means of subsistence, and 
 adopted the arts of civilized life. A regularly organ- 
 ized corps, officered by the chiefs, served in the American 
 cause, in the Revolutionary war. At its close, they migra- 
 ted to the reservation of the Oneidas, in Western New 
 York, whence, after the year 1820, they removed to the 
 banks of Fox river in Wisconsin, having purchased lands 
 of the Menomonees. This location was ceded at a subse- 
 quent period, in lieu of two townships of land eligibly situa- 
 ted on the north-eastern shores of Winnebago lake. Here 
 they are living, at this time (1845) as an agricultural people, 
 having good farms, dwellings, cattle, schools, and churches, 
 and they may, without exaggeration, be pronounced a re- 
 claimed people. Congress should admit them, without hesi- 
 tation, to all the rights of citizenship. 
 
 § Indian names of the right or west banks of the Hud- 
 son, FROM the ATLANTIC TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE MoHAWK. 
 
 We shall now direct attention to the opposite shores of 
 the river. The first prominent object on the west shore, 
 which attracts the eye of a person coming in from the sea, is 
 the Neversink. From ancient maps, in the possession of 
 the Society, there was a band, or sub tribe, called the Neve 
 Sincks, living in this vicinity, in 1659. They occupied the 
 angular area lying between the Atlantic waters and Rari- 
 tan bay, embracing these highlands, and extending to Bar- 
 negat bay. As in many analogous cases, it is difficult to 
 decide, whether the highland gave name to the band, or 
 the band to the highland. The former is most in accord- 
 ance with analogy. The signification of the term is, in 
 either case, clear. Nawa, is an adverbial phrase, meaning 
 between. It is derived from the abstract prepositional form, 
 Na-wi-e-e, meaning any inanimate object, intermediate 
 between others. In this case, it denoted the position of this 
 Band between the waters of the Atlantic and Raritan bay, 
 or of the Staten Island waters and New York harbor gene- 
 
34 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 rally. Ink is a term for locality. This particle, so common 
 in Algonquin words, means, when applied to dry land, a 
 place, a hill, plain, valley, &c. according to the word, to 
 which it is attached ; when bestowed on waters, it means 
 a bay, cove, inlet, river, &c. The meaning is clearly the 
 mid-mountain, or the Highland between the waters. The 
 tendency of the Dutch language to substitute the sound of 
 V for w, will account for the change in the orthography. In 
 the letter e, in their system of notation, is always used to 
 express the sound of ii. The word would have been writ- 
 ten by an Englishman Nawasink, and should, now, in its 
 popular form, be written Navisink. 
 
 Raritan was the name of one of the local tribes of the 
 Minci. The letter R, in this word is foreign. Amboy is a 
 name descriptive of a peculiarly or bottle-shaped bay. 
 
 The point at present occupied by Jersey City, was called 
 Ahasimus. Hoboken, is the name of one of the members of 
 a respectable Holland family living, at the era of the settle- 
 ment, in Amsterdam. Weehawken is apparently a deriva- 
 tive from Weeh-ruk-ink, but whether originally applied, as 
 at present, to the commencement only, or to the entire range 
 of the picturesque range of the Pallisadoes, is not certain. 
 The termination in awk, denotes trees ; but is suspected 
 here, to indicate a structure of the rock resembling trees. 
 In the MS. map of Gerardus Bancker, in the Society's Li- 
 brary, this coast is denominated the " Highlands of Tappan." 
 It is perceived, in De Vries, that there was a band of Indians 
 called the Tappans, who are several times mentioned in the 
 capricious and violent transactions which marked the era 
 of Kieft's administration. They were represented in the 
 general council held at Fort Amsterdam in 1G45. There is 
 a tradition, which calls this ancient tribe Tappansees. The 
 term " see" now applied to the bay is however generally 
 thought to be of Dutch origin. In the modern Algonquin 
 " Tabanzee," denotes a short or crouching person, which it is 
 merely suggestive, may have been a term applied to the 
 prominent cliff, which casts its shadows into the expanse 
 from the west shores. Whether the bay was named from 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OP NEW YORK. 35 
 
 them, or they took their name from the place of their resi- 
 dence, on the bay, is indeterminate. The ancient name of 
 Haverstraw bay, was Kumochenack. The name of Nyack 
 does not occur in records of the earliest period, for the posi- 
 tion of the present town. The word is found in an opposite 
 Indian village of Kastoniuk. There was also a band of 
 Indians of the name of Naiack, who in 1645, were living 
 below Red Hook, on Long Island. The clans of the west 
 shores of the Hudson, were very much mixed and sub-di- 
 vided. In the many vicissitudes of the era, and the complex 
 movements of the so called River Indians, or Mohekander, 
 migrations doubtless extended up the Hudson. The Mon-a- 
 tans were on ill terms with the Metoacs, or Long Island 
 Indians, and sometimes at open war, with them, as well as 
 with the Mincees, or Monseys on the west shores. Such a 
 removal, would have been quite in accordance with sound 
 policy ; and there are some other points in the lexicography 
 of the coast, which denote such an intermixture. 
 
 The stream coming in at Grasy Point, was called the 
 MiNiNisicoNGo. A peculiar and remarkable formation of 
 the banks of this stream denotes the origin of the name. 
 After its origin in high grounds west of Haverstraw, it flows 
 to within less than a hundred yards of the Hudson, which it 
 would seem designed to enter, but is deflected back west- 
 ward, and after running around a large island-shaped area, 
 by a channel of several miles, actually enters the Hudson 
 but a mile below the first threatened point of entry. This 
 point is a mere diluvial formation of pebbles, clay and boul- 
 ders, which a little labor would admit the creek to pass 
 through. Such a change would convert the peninsula into 
 an island. It seems indeed quite probable that the island- 
 shaped area, was, at an ancient date, wholly surrounded by 
 the waters of the Hudson. The tide now flows quite around 
 it. The term Mennisecongo, describes this formation. It 
 is a derivative from Minnis, an island, and the adverbial 
 particle ongo, itself a compound from ong, and o, an ob- 
 jective sign. 
 
 The coast above the Highlands, comprising the present 
 
36 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 county of Orange, was occupied by the Waranowankings. 
 The mountains in Orange county, called Shawangunk, ap- 
 pear to have been named either from their structure from 
 sand, and their position south of the Katz-berg group. The 
 word seems a compound from Shawanong, the south, the 
 generic particle tang, denoting sands, with k the sign of 
 locality. 
 
 These clans were succeeded, in ascending north, through 
 the general area of Ulster and Green counties, by the Min- 
 nisinks, the Nanticokes, the Minsees, and Delawares proper, 
 who poured in the Hudson valley through the Wallkill, and 
 were often vaguely denominated "Esopus Indians" — from 
 the place of their trade. 
 
 Esopus, though classic in sound, is a word said to be deri- 
 vative from the Indian, but the committee have not been 
 able to trace such an origin. The nearest approach to it, 
 is in Seepus, the name of a river by the Metoacs, and Seepu 
 or Sipu having the same meaning in Minci. The Indians 
 who dwelt here, on the arrival of the Dutch, were a mixed 
 race of the Minci, in their form of the Minnisinks, and the 
 Nanticokes from the sea shore of Maryland and Virginia, 
 whence they had early migrated. They have not left the 
 remembrance of any very high traits, and probably sunk 
 away and disappeared rapidly. The Dutch bestowed the 
 name of Wiltwyck upon the place — a term which may be 
 rendered into English by the word Indiana. The popular 
 name of Esopus, which some suppose, but without much 
 probability, to be of Greek origin, through the Holland race 
 prevailed, till superseded by the present term of Kingston. 
 As the water communication, from this point to the Dela- 
 ware, was a very prominent one, long known and celebrated 
 among the Indians, the probability of its having been called 
 byway of preeminence. The River, or Seepus, as above hint- 
 ed, is still worthy consideration. The dipthong se with which 
 this word is written, and to which it owes, chiefly, its foreign 
 aspect, is wholly of a comparatively recent date. Colonel 
 Nichols, in 1665, in his proclamation, printed at Cambridge, 
 spells it " Sopes." 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OP NEW YORK. 37 
 
 The Katskill Mountains, or Katzbergs, as certain of our 
 popular writers have well called them,* are said to derive 
 their name from the catamount or panther,| the most formi- 
 dable of the feline race, in our latitudes. This animal, which 
 is still known to inhabit the region, is called Catlos in the 
 Dutch language — a term which it is known this people never 
 applied to the domestic cat. The term Kotzaband, has 
 been noticed in one of the earlier maps, as a generic or 
 geological phrase applied to the entire Katzberg groupe. 
 In this sense, it would embrace all the mountainous features 
 of secondary origin, reaching from the Shawangunk to the 
 Schoharie and the Helderbergs. 
 
 Some pains have been taken to search our Indian archae- 
 ology, for the aboriginal name for this noble group, but 
 without the degree of certainty which is desired. The 
 term Beezhoac, in these dialects, denotes Panther moun- 
 tain ; it is a derivative from Beezhu, a panther, or lynx, 
 and akee land. Ishpiac is another term applicable to the 
 groupe. It denotes, simply, high land, and is derived from 
 Ishpiming, " that is high," and akee land. Ispiming is the 
 local form of the adjective high, and is the term for sky or 
 the heavens. It is not probable that the rythm of either of 
 these, or other aboriginal terms impressed themselves on 
 the notice of the early settlers. It was the practice of both 
 the French and Dutch traders and interpreters, to translate 
 the Indian names of rivers, &c. into their respective lan- 
 guages. This has been found universal, throughout the 
 continent, in relation to points of geography, which bore a 
 prior Indian name. We have the authority of Benson, for 
 stating, that the practice prevailed here, and that the Dutch 
 names of Katzberg and Katzkill, were given from the 
 panther or lynx, animals who infested the gloomy recesses 
 of these mountains, and not from the harmless domestic 
 species. To the Iroquois, however, who came into the val- 
 ley stealthily and on war parties, its natural history would 
 be less perfectly known, and it is from the sonorous vocabu- 
 
 * Hoffman andW. L. Stone. + Benson's memoir before the Historical Society. 
 4 
 
38 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 lary of this race that we have derived the term Ontiora, 
 meaning mountains of the sky. There are states of the 
 atmosphere when this group appears like a heavy cumulus 
 cloud above the horizon, and this is clearly the feature 
 denoted. Tiorate, in the Onondaga dialect, means the sky 
 or heaven, and Ononta, a mountain. 
 
 The word Minntsink is derived from Minnis, an island situ- 
 ated in the Delaware, which was formerly occupied by a 
 band of the lineage of the Minci or Moncees. It has its local 
 termination in ink. It was here that Brainerd had some of 
 his severest labors and trials. The entry of the Wallkill 
 into the Hudson from the direction of the Delaware, ren- 
 dered it an eligible point for the Indian trade ; numerous 
 small bands were seated in this vicinity, who have left 
 names in the existing geography of the country. Warwar- 
 siNG signifies the place of the bird's nest. Bearen island 
 bore the name of Passapenock.* In the Katskill patent 
 there were several great plains, one of which bore the name 
 
 of PoTCCK.f 
 
 The word Coxackie is a compound derivative from 
 Keeshkidg to cut, and a-kee, eaith. By observation, it will 
 be seen that the current of the Hudson, at this point, is de- 
 flected against the west shore, an effect which was proba- 
 bly still more striking to the eye before the country was 
 cultivated. Owing to this cause, there is but a narrow 
 Strip of land between the river and the hill. There can be 
 no doubt but that, at an early period, the action of the 
 river, trenched on this hill, and cut dow^n, as it were, the 
 earth, and threw it into the river. This is the particular 
 effect described by the word Kuxakee, or the cut-banks. 
 
 The present site of Coeymans, bore the name of Sanago. J 
 A mill creek, above this point, was called Sektanac. Two 
 miles higher there w^as a village called Mekago.§ There is 
 a stream entering the Hudson, a little below Coeymans, 
 bearing the aboriginal name of Hakitak, pronounced Hoki- 
 
 * Johnson's* Reports, 8. t Cain, 3. 293. 
 
 X Spelt with a plural inflection, Lannahgog, Vide Dutch Records at Albany. 
 
 § Recorded with its diminutive inflection in nse, Alb. Rec. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 39 
 
 TOO. This is the highest point, except an ancient term for 
 Albany itself, to which the Minci type of the Lennopean 
 names has been traced. 
 
 § Terminology of the ancient site op Albany and its 
 vicinity. 
 
 The site of Albany appears to have been an important 
 central point, at a very early period in our Indian history. 
 It was at this spot, and the parts adjacent that the tribes of 
 the two great races, the Iroquois and Algonquins, came into 
 contact, and we consequently find, in its geography, a mix- 
 ture of the names of two generic languages. The first 
 Iroquois term noticed, in the ascent of the river to this 
 place, is the ancient Mohawk name for the Norman's Kill. 
 This stream was called the Tavvasentha, meaning the place 
 of many dead.* The term Iosco, applied to one of its 
 branches issuing from the Pine Plains, in Guilderland town- 
 ship, is of Algonquin origin. It was on the island, in the 
 Hudson, at the mouth of this stream, that the first Dutch 
 fort, commanded by Captain Christians, was built, A. D. 
 1614. This island was, at the time, a noted place of 
 encampment and trade for the Iroquois. The portage path 
 from the Mohawk across the Pine Plains reached the 
 river, and terminated about two miles above, at the pre- 
 sent site of Albany. The location of the city itself, under 
 the preponderating influence of the fur trade, at that early 
 day, seemed to have been, in a great measure, determined 
 by the importance of this terminal point of this great Indian 
 thoroughfare. The Mohawks, and other kindred tribes, who 
 came from the west, and were compelled to traverse this 
 sandy tract, called its southern terminus, as the word was 
 recently pronounced by Mrs. Kerr,f Skahnektate — a word 
 which has been uniformly written Schenectady. By the 
 Oneidas and by the Senecas, the pronunciation of the term 
 
 * Giles F. Yates, Esqr. Newspapers. + A daughter of Thyaiidanegea, 
 
40 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 is much softer and more euphonious, conformably with the 
 general idiom of those two dialects. From the lips of 
 either of these tribes the modern orthography would be 
 perfect, were the penultimate syllable exchanged for the 
 dipthong ae, preceded by the letter t instead of d. Its mean- 
 ing, as imparted by the above quoted authority, is, Beyond 
 the Pines. The objective phrase tatea, is the same, with 
 very little variation, which is found in the name for the 
 Hudson, and denotes how varied and flexible the language 
 is, in its descriptive powers. 
 
 By the Mincees and other tribes of the Lennopean stock, 
 who occupied the right banks of the Hudson, but who were 
 not alone limited to that side, this site was called Kaishti- 
 Nic, or Gaishtinnic, of which the meaning is not known. 
 The Mohegans, who, with the other tribes, were from the 
 earliest date of the settlement in the habit of resorting to it, 
 as a place of treaty and trade, denominated it Chescodonta, 
 or •' the hill of the great Council Fire." Council Fire is, 
 with all our tribes, the equivalent phrase for seat of govern- 
 ment, and we may thus yield them precedence in predict- 
 ing the future capitol of the state. 
 
 The Dutch, who soon transferred the fort from the island 
 to the river's margin in the lower part, the present site of 
 South Market street, named it, after the reigning house, 
 Orange. The village which soon clustered around it, they 
 named Beaverwyck. The manor granted to K. Van Rens- 
 selaer, had its boundaries assigned under the name of 
 Rensselaerwyck. The civil jurisdiction, baliwick, or Sheriff- 
 dom, which extended to the Mohawk, bore the title of 
 Schenectady. This constituted the nomenclature of the 
 place, according to the best authorities, when the colony 
 was taken by the English crown, under the authority of 
 the Duke of York and Albany, who bestowed his Scottish 
 title on the place. The civil jurisdiction established, on 
 this change, left a part of the former boundaries, with the 
 Sheriff actually in office, residing on the other verge of the 
 Plains, on the banks of the Mohawk, and thus the name of 
 
TERMraOLOGY OP THE STATE OP NEW YORK. 41 
 
 Schenectady was transferred.* The transference of name, 
 to the present city of Schenectady, took place in 1664. A 
 considerable hill, about three miles northwest of Albany in 
 the Plains, formerly a place of Indian trade, was called, by 
 the Mohawks, Itsutehera, or by using its common prefix — 
 Yonondis-Itsutchera. The meaning is, the Hill of Oil. 
 It is not known how this name originated. It was called, 
 till within late years. Trader's Hill. 
 
 The present site of Waterford was called Nachtenac, a 
 word whose termination in ac, reveals the term akee, earth 
 or land. Na, is an inseparable particle, which carries into 
 all its combinations, in the Algic dialects, the meaning of 
 excellent. 
 
 The junction of the Mohawk with the Hudson was called 
 TiosARONDA. It describes the mingling of two streams. 
 
 We have thus reached the point to which this first part 
 of the Report is limited. 
 
 Before leaving the consideration of the Hudson, and pro- 
 ceeding to another field, in which the nomenclature takes 
 its character entirely from a difterent language, the com- 
 mittee would invite attention to a generic term for the 
 entire valley, which has been found on one of the earliest 
 Dutch maps consulted. It is the word To-areyuna. It was 
 applied to both its banks, and was supposed, at first, to 
 refer to the Highlands. But its etymology does not sustain 
 this opinion. We have in the particle To the term for 
 water; Ar, is the same particle which, in Cataracqua, de- 
 notes rock, and una, the same syllable, which, in Niskayuna, 
 means the green vegetation of spring, or foliage, as in 
 green corn. By these elements the three grand and cha- 
 racteristic features of this valley — namely, its waters, rocks, 
 and foliage, are described. It must be borne in mind, that 
 the Hudson is south of the Iroquois country, that war excur- 
 sions are made in spring when the leaves newly bud, and 
 that when the warriors proceeded into this valley on their 
 earliest war excursions towards the ocean, every step they 
 
 * Benson's Memoir. 
 
42 ABORIGINAL NAMES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 advanced rendered the spring vegetation more forward and 
 enchanting to their eyes. And it is not a matter of v^onder, 
 that with this foliage hanging, as it did, in many places, 
 about the brows of cHfFs, in others, towering in the exfo- 
 liating tops of the forest, and in all, reflected in the noble 
 stream, these images should, with their flexible constructive 
 language, have been immediately seized upon and embodied 
 in one expressive term. 
 
 As yet no aboriginal name for the Highlands has been 
 found. By imparting to the above compound term of 
 ToAREYUNA, an adjective form, the poet may, in the mean- 
 time, deduce, as applicable to this eminence, the term 
 ToARANoc [Toranoc] 
 
 In these examinations of the aboriginal names of the 
 Hudson valley, little more has been attempted, than to in- 
 vestigate the names of the immediate margin of the river, 
 east and west. The interior of the river counties consti- 
 tutes a field which demands an amount of time, and means 
 of information, which the committee have not possessed.*" 
 The larger part of these names, which are preserved by 
 local tradition, are not to be found on maps, or in books. 
 Some of them may, it is believed, be found in the original 
 title deeds of families. A portion of such names, for 
 streams and other local features, has already been put on 
 record, in the reports of land trials and questions of title, 
 and is accessible through the volumes of Legal Reports. 
 A few of these only are quoted. The elaborate examina- 
 tion and description of the county and township boundaries, 
 which form an introductory part of the Revised Statutes, 
 embrace others. The records of the office of the Surveyor 
 General of the State, particularly that portion of them 
 which is due to the zeal and assiduity of the late Simeon 
 De Witt, are known to embrace numerous details of this 
 kind, for the examination of which ample time and oppor- 
 tunity are, however, required. And when every other 
 
 * In this report, the portion relative to the names of the Mohawk valley, is 
 segregated, and will, it is designed, be revised and reported before the summer 
 recess. 
 
TERMINOLOGY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 43 
 
 source has been mentioned, it will still, perhaps, be true 
 that, for the effectual prosecution and completion of the 
 enquiry, the Historical Society must look, in a great meas- 
 ure, to the interest felt in the subject, and the urbanity and 
 intelligence of gentlemen actually resident in the various 
 townships, villages, and local precincts. Some aids of this 
 kind, small in amount, but valuable in themselves, have 
 already been received, which are quoted, in foot notes or 
 references. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 In behalf of the Committee, 
 
 HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, 
 
 Chairman. 
 To Albert Gallatin. 
 
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