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
Waweiantepakook, Waweantepakoak, Wawantepekoak, are forms of a name given
as that of "a high round hill" near Catskill. The description reads: "A
place on the northeast side of a brook called Kiskatamenakook, on the
west side of a hill called Waweantepakoak." (Land Papers, 242.) The
location has not been ascertained. _Antpéch_ (_Antpek,_ Zeisb.), means
"Head." In Mass. (Eliot), _Puhkuk--Muppukuk,_ "A head." _Wawei_ is a
reduplicative of _Wai_ or _Way_; it means, "Many windings around," or
deviations from a direct line. The name is sufficiently explained by the
description, "On the west side of a hill," or a hill-side, but
descriptive of a hill resembling a head--"high, erect"--with the
accessory meaning of superiority. "Indian Head" is now applied to one
of the peaks of the Catskills. The parts of the body were sometimes
applied by the Indians to inanimate objects just as we apply them in
English--head of a cove, leg of a table, etc. (See Wawayanda.)
Kiskatom, a village and a stream of water so called in Greene County,
appears in two forms in original records, _Kiskatammeeche_ and
_Kiskatamenakoak._ The abbreviated form, _Kiskatom,_ appears in 1708,
more particularly describing "A certain tract by a place called
Kiskatammeeche, beginning at a turn of Catrick's Kill ten chains below
where Kiskatammeeche Kill watereth into Catrick's Kill," and "Under the
great mountain called Kiskatameck." Dr. Trumbull wrote:
"_Kiskato-minak-auke,_ 'Place of thin-shelled nuts,' or shag-bark hickory
nuts." He explained: "Shag-bark hickory nuts, 'nuts to be cracked by
the teeth,' are the 'Kiskatominies' and 'Kisky Thomas nuts' of the
descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Jersey and New York." (Comp.
Ind. Geographical Names.)
Kaniskek, or Caniskek, of record as the name of Athens, is described in
original deeds: "A certain tract of land on the west side of North River
opposite Claverack, called Caniskek, which stretches along the river from
the lands of Peter Bronck down to the valley lying near the point of the
main land behind the Barren Island, called Mackawameck," now known as
Black Rock, at the south part of Athens. The description covers the long
marshy flat in front of Athens, or between Athens and Hudson. The name
seems to be from _Quana_ (_Quinnih,_ Eliot), "Long"; _-ask,_ the radical
of all names meaning grass, marsh, meadow, etc., and _-ek,_
formative--literally, "Long marsh or meadow." The early settlement at
Athens was called Loonenburgh, from one Jan van Loon, who located there
in 1706. Esperanza succeeded this name and was followed by Athens. The
particular place of first settlement is described as running "from the
corner called Mackawameck west into the woodland to the Kattskill road
or path, which land is called Loonenburgh." Athens is from the capital
of the ancient Greek State of Attica.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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