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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.

Name: 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.
Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning

Ruttenber, Edward Manning

Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America

Mohawk district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on
both sides, was held by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at
Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the
name from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this
district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no
element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls. [FN-2] When the
falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the
world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early
days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep
over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was
perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The
roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of
ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and
the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily
the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream having cut its
way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in
massive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or
"Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five
miles apart, at Waterford and West Troy respectively.

                          * * * * *

 [FN-1] "L. Intervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Pownal's Map.)

 [FN-2] The name having been submitted to the Bureau of Ethnology for
 interpretation, the late Prof. J. W. Powell, Chief, wrote me, as the
 opinion of himself and his co-laborers: "The name is unquestionably
 from the Algonquian _Koowa._"


Wathoiack, of record as the name of "The Great Rift above Kahoes Falls"
(Cal. Land Papers, 134, etc.) is also written _Wathojax, D'Wathoiack,_
and _DeWathojaaks,_ means, substantially, what it describes, a rift or
rapid. The cis-locative _De_ locates a place "On this side of the rapid,"
or the side toward the speaker. The flow of water is between walls of
rock over a rocky bed, and the rapids extend for a distance of
thirty-five or forty feet. (Ses Kahoes.)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

Mohawk district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on
both sides, was held by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at
Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the
name from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this
district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no
element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls. [FN-2] When the
falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the
world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early
days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep
over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was
perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The
roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of
ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and
the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily
the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream having cut its
way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in
massive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or
"Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five
miles apart, at Waterford and West Troy respectively.

                          * * * * *

 [FN-1] "L. Intervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Pownal's Map.)

 [FN-2] The name having been submitted to the Bureau of Ethnology for
 interpretation, the late Prof. J. W. Powell, Chief, wrote me, as the
 opinion of himself and his co-laborers: "The name is unquestionably
 from the Algonquian _Koowa._"


Wathoiack, of record as the name of "The Great Rift above Kahoes Falls"
(Cal. Land Papers, 134, etc.) is also written _Wathojax, D'Wathoiack,_
and _DeWathojaaks,_ means, substantially, what it describes, a rift or
rapid. The cis-locative _De_ locates a place "On this side of the rapid,"
or the side toward the speaker. The flow of water is between walls of
rock over a rocky bed, and the rapids extend for a distance of
thirty-five or forty feet. (Ses Kahoes.)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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.

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.

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