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
Algonquian students who have been consulted, regard the name as it stands
as without meaning; that some part of the original was lost by mishearing
or dropped in pronunciation; that in the dialect which is supposed to
have been spoken here the suffix _-onck_ is classed as a locative and
the adjectival _Mogg_ is not complete. Several restorations of presumed
lost letters have been suggested to give the name a meaning, none of
which, however, are satisfactory. Apparently the most satisfactory
reading is from _Magonck_, or _Magunk_ (Mohegan), "A great tree,"
explained by Dr. Trumbull: "From _Mogki,_ 'Great,' and _-unk,_ 'A tree
while standing.'" It is met as the name of a boundmark on the Connecticut,
and on the east side of the Hudson, within forty miles of the locative
here, _Moghongh-kamigh_, "Place of a great tree," is met as the name of
a boundmark. _Mogkunk_ is also in the Natick dialect, and there is no
good reason for saying that it was not in the local dialect here. There
may have been a certain great tree at the foot of the hill, from which
the name was extended to the hill, and there may have been one on the
Wallkill, which Ankerop said "Was the right Indian name of the place."
It will be remembered that the deed boundmark was "The foot of the hill."
It is safe to say that the name never could have described "A small run
of water and a swamp," nor did it mean "Sky-Top." The former features
were introduced by the Justices to identify the place where the
boundary-stone was located and have no other value; the latter is a
fanciful creation, "Not consistent with fact or reason," but very good
as an advertisement.
Maggeanapogh, the name which Ankerop gave as that of the hill called
Moggonck, bears every evidence of correctness. It is reasonably pure
Lenape or Delaware, to which stock Ankerop probably belonged. The first
word, _Maggean,_ is an orthography of _Machen_ (_Meechin,_ Zeisb.;
_Mashkan,_ Chippeway), meaning "Great," big, large, strong, hard,
occupying chief position, etc., and the second, _-apogh,_ written in
other local names _-apugh, -apick,_ etc., is from _-ápughk_ (_-ápuchk,_
Zeisb.), meaning "Rock," the combination reading, literally, "A great
rock." In the related Chippeway dialect the formative word for rock is
_-bik,_ and the radical is _-ic_ or _-ick,_ of which Dr. Schoolcraft
wrote, "Rock, or solid formation of rock." No particular part of the
hill was referred to, the text reading, "There being Ankerop, the Indian,
then brought us to the High Mountain which he named Maggeanapogh." The
time has passed when the name could have been made permanent. For all
coming time the hill will bear the familiar name of Mohonk, the Moggonck
of 1677, the Paltz Point and the High Point of local history, from the
foot of which the place of beginning of the boundary line was never
removed, although the course from it was changed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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