Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.Ruttenber, Edward Manning
History
Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.
Ruttenber, Edward Manning
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America
Long-house, Wawayanda, and Pochuck are local names for what may be
regarded as one and the same stream. It rises in the Drowned Lands, in
New Jersey, where it is known as Long-house Creek; flows north until it
receives the outlet of Wickham's Pond, in Warwick, Orange County, and
from thence the united streams form the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, which
flows southwesterly for some miles into New Jersey and falls into Pochuck
Creek, which approaches from the northwest, and from thence the flow is
northwest into Orange County again to a junction with the Wallkill,
which, rising in Pine Swamp, Sparta, N. J., flows north and forms the
main drainage channel of the Drowned Lands. In addition to its general
course Wawayanda Creek is especially sinuous in the New Milford and
Sandfordville districts of Warwick, the bends multiplying at short
distances, and also in the vicinity of the De Kay homestead in Vernon.
In Warwick the stream has been known as "Wandering River" for many years.
The patented lands are on this stream. Its name, Long-house Creek, was,
no doubt, from one of the peculiar dwellings constructed by the Indians
known as a Long House, [FN] which probably stood on or near the stream,
and was occupied by the clan who sold the lands. _Pochuck_ is from a
generic meaning "A recess or corner." It is met in several places. (See
Wawayanda and Pochuck.)
* * * * *
[FN] The Indian Long House was from fifty to six hundred and fifty feet
in length by twenty feet in width, the length depending upon the number
of persons or families to be accommodated, each family having its own
fire. They were formed by saplings set in the ground, the tops bent
together and the whole covered with bark. The Five Nations compared
their confederacy to a long house reaching, figuratively, from Hudson's
River to Lake Erie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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