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
Wawanaquasik, Claverack Patent, 1649; _Wawanaquassick,_ Livingston
Patent of 1686; _Wawauaquassick_ and _Mawauapquassek,_ patent of 1715;
_Mawanaqwassik,_ surveyor's notation, 1715; now written
_Mawanaquassick_--a boundmark of the Claverack Patent of 1649, and also
of the Livingston Patent, is described in the Claverack Patent, "To the
high woodland called Wawanaquasik," and in the Livingston Patent, "_To
a place_ called by the Indians Wawanaqussek, where the heapes of stone
lye, near to the head of a creek called Nanapenahaken, which comes out
of a marsh lying near unto the hills of the said heapes of stones, upon
which the Indians throw another as they pass by, from an ancient custom
among them." The heap of stones here was "on the south side of the path
leading to Wayachtanok," and other paths diverged, showing that the
place was a place of meeting. "To the high woodland," in the description
of 1649, is marked on the map of survey of 1715, "Foot of the hill,"
apparently a particular point, the place of which was identified by the
head of the creek, the marsh and the heap of stones. The name may have
described this point or promontory, or it may have referred to the
place of meeting near the head of the creek, or to the end of the marsh,
but it is claimed that it was the name of the heap of stones, and that
it is from _Miáe,_ or _Miyáe,_ "Together"--_Mawena,_ "Meeting,"
"Assembly"--frequently met in local names and accepted as meaning,
"Where paths or streams or boundaries come together;" and _Qussuk,_
"stone"--"Where the stones are assembled or brought together," "A stone
heap." This reading is of doubtful correctness. Dr. Trumbull wrote that
_Qussuk,_ [FN-1] meaning "stone," is "rarely, perhaps never" met as a
substantival in local names, and an instance is yet to be cited where
it is so used. It is a legitimate word in some connections, however,
Eliot writing it as a noun in _Môhshe-qussuk,_ "A flinty rock," in the
singular number. If used here it did not describe "a heap of stones,"
but a certain rock. On the map of survey of the patent, in 1798, the
second station is marked "Manor Rock," and the third, "Wawanaquassick,"
is located 123 chains and 34 links (a fraction over one and one-half
miles) north of Manor Rock, as the corner of an angle. In the survey of
1715, the first station is "the foot of the hill"--"the high
woodland"--which seems to have been the _Mawan-uhqu-ōōsik_ [FN-2] of the
text. To avoid all question the heap of stones seems to have been
included in the boundary. It now lies in an angle in the line between
the townships of Claverack and Taghkanic, Columbia County, and is by
far the most interesting feature of the locative--a veritable footprint
of a perished race. Similar heaps were met by early European travelers
in other parts of the country. Rev. Gideon Hawley, writing in 1758,
described one which he met in Schohare Valley, and adds that the
largest one that he ever saw was "on the mountain between Stockbridge
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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