Chapter Two
What's In A Name?
Much of the confusion in recording the spelling, pronunciations and
the meaning of place names in New York comes from the many European and
Indian languages involved. French explorers traveled through the area first,
followed by the Dutch who settled in the southern and eastern parts of
the state, and finally the British who governed until the Revolutionary
War.
The Indian nations living in New York also spoke
different languages. Even the well organized nations that made up
the Iroquois League had at least two, perhaps three different language
"roots". After years of close association their languages became
similar but there were many differences. For instance there are no
"r" sounds in the Oneida language but there are in the Mohawk.
Of course none of the Indian nations living in what
is now New York had a written language, so the only written records of
their words and meanings are in the form of what their words sounded
like to European and American scholars. To make it even more confusing,
European and Indian languages have changed over the years. Today there
are modern Dutch, English, Mohawk and Oneida languages.
Mohawk Is Not An Indian Name
The Mohican Indians living in the upper Hudson Valley called their
enemies, who lived in the valley to their west, Mohowaug, "they
eat living creatures." The Dutch changed the pronunciation to Maquaas
or Mahakuaas and the New Englanders modified it to Mohawk.
The people who lived in the central Mohawk Valley
called themselves Kanyenkehaka and the valley they lived in Kanyenka.
Where's The Flint? Or is it Crystal?
Since I started researching the history of the
Mohawk Indians, I questioned the long accepted historical fact that Kanyenka
meant
"the place of the flint" and that Kanyenkehaka meant "people
of the place of the flint." Flint is a form of quartz that
was used by early man to make cutting edge tools and weapons.
I asked a number of students
of the Mohawks where the flint was in the Mohawk Valley that was so plentiful
and so unique. No one could answer that simple question. The fact is, there
is no rock face or quarry in the Mohawk Valley where flint is abundant
or unique.
As I discovered while researching
Kuyahoora-Discovering
West Canada Valley there are, however, a number of dolostone rock faces
and quarries in the Mohawk Valley---from Middleville to the Noses---where
a form of clear quartz crystal is abundant and unique. So unique that people
from around the world come here to mine it.
Then I read Mohawk Valley
Archaeology: The Sites by Dean R. Snow and In Mohawk Country
by Snow, Gehring and Starna. In both books it's noted that the "the place
of the flint" was more likely "the place of the crystal", referring to
quartz crystals that are now called Herkimer Diamonds.
`I contacted Charles Gehring
and he referred me to Dean Snow. Dean is one of North America's leading
historical anthropologists and is currently Professor and Head of Anthropology
at Pennsylvania State University. He was extremely helpful and suggested
I read his book The Iroquois.
In that book, Snow writes:
"They were known to themselves and to the other Iroquois nations as the
Kanyenkehaka,
the people of Kanyenke (also spelled Ganienkeh). This has
usually been translated "Place of the Flint," but the flint (or more properly
chert) sources in Mohawk country were not particularly sought after. More
important were the clear quartz crystals now called Herkimer diamonds,
which could be quarried in a few local mines and abound on Mohawk village
sites. These were highly valued by Iroquois and other nations.
Kanyenke
was more likely "Place of the Crystals." Crystals were symbolically
important as amulets of success, health, and long life, artifacts more
likely to inspire a name than a second-rate chert. The Mohawks were
the main suppliers of quartz crystals up to 1614. After that they became
primary middlemen for the Dutch glass beads that replaced them."
A reference "Note" explains:
"Hale (1883: 72) translated Kanyenke as
"Place of the Flint", but Hewitt (1903: 309) argued that reference to flint
were really references to ice or crystal. Hamell (1983) has shown that
crystals had considerably more symbolic significance that chert."
Like Hewitt and Snow, I'm convinced the Mohawks were the "people of the place of the crystals", hence the name of this book MOHAWK - Discovering the Valley of the Crystals.
Kuyahoora and Kanata are Indian
Names
West Canada Valley is sometimes called Kuyahoora and is purported to
mean "leaping waters", referring to Trenton Falls. This spelling and translation
first appeared in a promotional book for the Trenton Falls Resort in 1851,
so it's authenticity is suspect. However, a 1796 map of the area noted
the river as Cayahora. The Mohawk word for creek is "kayuha", so Kuyahoora
is undoubtedly a Mohawk name or phrase.
West Canada Creek was the Canada Kill (kill is the
Dutch word for stream) on the western boundary of Sir William Johnson's
Royal Grant. East Canada Creek was the eastern boundary. Kanata is an Iroquois
word for village and is the origin of the word Canada. The Mohawks
also called the river Deyoghtoraron as noted in the draft of the Royal
Grant. The Senecas called the river Te-uge'-ga and considered West
Canada Creek its true source.
Sauquoit,
Sadaquada or Sagh-de-que-da?
There is no Sauquoit Creek on old
maps of the Mohawk Valley. There is, however, a Sadaquada
Creek entering the river at Whitestown. The following is the best explanation
I've found for the name change.
"The Oneida Indians who fished up the "creek" from where it debouched into the Mohawk, observed the peculiarity that its bed,---so unlike the Mohawk,---was a mass of smooth round stones, pebbles and gravel, worn so from the action of the water, and they called the creek Sagh-de-que-da, signifying "smooth round pebbles." The Brotherton and Stockbridge Indians who fished the headwaters of the Oriskany, and crossing the summit plateau near Tassel Hill, fished down the creek to the "great Indian trail" (that crossed it where now is the village of Sauquoit) by which they returned to their villages over Paris Hill, noticed the characteristic of its great fall--620 feet in seven miles to that point, nearly 90 feet to the mile---and they called it Sauquoit, signifying "short and rapid," which later name was adopted after a few years by the pioneers and early settlers, in preference to Sagh-de-que-da, which name appeared in the first maps and deeds of their land."
Erie as
in Mountain Lion
Erie as in Erie Canal, Erie Street and Erie Boulevard
were named after Lake Erie. Lake Erie was named after the Indian people
who lived along the lake's southern shore---an area where mountain
lions were abundant. The lions were called Erielhonan, meaning "long
tail" and the Indians living there were called Erie or Cat Nation.
In 1600 some 14,000 Eries lived in villages between what is now Buffalo,
NY and Sandusky, Ohio. In 1656 they were almost exterminated by the Iroquois
League. The surviving captives were either adopted or enslaved.
Alplaus – Dutch for "Eel Place." Wonder how the eels got up and over Cohoes Falls.
Oriskany – Mohawk (and perhaps Oneida) for Oriska, “the place of the nettles.” Name of an Oneida Village that was located near the present village of Oriskany prior to the Revolutionary War.
Schenectady - derived from "Schau-naugh-ta-da," which in the language of the Mohawks signifies "over the pine plains," or "across the pine plains,” referring to the pine plains between Albany and the place on the Mohawk River where canoes and boats could be launched for traveling west.
Herkimer or German Flatts?
The Names Were Changed to Protect the Guilty
Why are Fort Herkimer Church and the site of Fort Herkimer in German
Flatts instead of Herkimer? Why do old maps and references place German
Flatts near the mouth of the West Canada on the north side of the Mohawk
River and Herkimer on the south side, when today they are just the opposite?
The rich flatlands at the mouth of the West Canada
were settled by Palatines in the early 1720s. These German-speaking immigrants
established farms on both sides of the Mohawk River and a village on the
banks of the West Canada on the north side of the Mohawk. Before 1788 the
village on the north side of the river and the area around it were called
German Flatts.
Around 1740 Johan Jost Herkimer built a stone house
and trading post on the south side of the Mohawk. Soon after, the construction
of a stone church was begun on Herkimer’s property a quarter-mile or so
east of his home and opposite the mouth of West Canada Creek. During
the French and Indian War, Herkimer’s home and the church were fortified.
The community that grew up in this area was called Herkimer.
After the Revolutionary War, while this area was
still part of Montgomery County, (Herkimer County was formed in 1791) local
officials advised the New York Surveyor-General, Simeon DeWitt that the
two towns on opposite sides of the Mohawk, near the mouth of West Canada
Creek, were German Flatts and Herkimer.
Unfortunately, the local official who presented
the information, a Doctor William Petrie, based his left and right view
of the Mohawk River looking upstream, while the surveyor based his official
papers and maps looking downstream. In 1788 it was easier to reverse
the locations of the towns than correct the paper work, so the names were
changed to correct the error .... and perhaps to protect the guilty.
Canajoharie
- "the pot that cleans itself"
More than 10 thousand years ago a glacial river
cut through shale, dolostone and limestone to create a 3-mile gorge on
the south side of the Mohawk River a few miles west of The Noses. During
the process a large, circular pothole was ground into solid rock near the
lower end of the gorge. The early inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley called
this pothole "the pot that cleans itself."
When the Mohawk villages on
the north side of the Mohawk River were destroyed by the French in the
1690s, the Mohawks moved across the river and built four villages.
One of them was a palisaded village located on what is now Prospect Hill
at the present village of Fort Plain. It was named after the unique pothole
that was located some four miles to the east. . The English translation
of the early Mohawk words for the “pot that cleans itself” was Canajohara
or Canajoharie. When this Upper Castle was moved upriver, opposite
the mouth of East Canada Creek, it took the same name. That Mohawk village
was called Canajoharie until the Revolutionary War when the Mohawks moved
to Canada.
For at time before and after
the Revolutionary War, the region of the Mohawk Valley between Little Falls
and The Noses, south of the river, was called the Canajoharie District.
Later the Village of Canajoharie was established just downstream from “the
pot that cleans itself” and the creek and gorge were called Canajoharie.
Today in the modern Mohawk language Canajoharie
is written as Kanatsiohareke, which is also the name of the Mohawk Indian
Community located at the base of Big Nose.
Fort
Plain
Prior to the Revolutionary War there was a log
and plank fort on a terrace overlooking the Mohawk River flatts near the
mouth of Otsquago Creek. Throughout most of the war the fort was named
in honor of General Van Rensselaer. Indeed, most military documents and
personal letters at that time referred to it as Fort Rensselaer, but after
General Rensselaer was “disgraced” during the Battle of Klock’s Field,
the fort’s name was changed to Fort Plain, referring to the view from the
fort’s ramparts. The village that grew up on the plain along the Mohawk
River was named after the fort. Fort Plain, incidentally, is one
of the few Mohawk Valley forts that came out of the Revolutionary War that
was not named after a general, or the individual or officer who built it.
More To Come:
Indian Castle, Frankfort and more.
