Home / Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. / Passage

Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names

Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. 252 words

Gaits- [chet of the Bureau of Ethnology, " an equivalent of Wabenaki -ke'dshwan, -kidshuan, suffixed verbal stem, meaning ' Running S-wiftly,' ' Rushing water,' or current, whether over rapids or not. sas-katchczvan, Canada, ' The roiley, rushing stream ; assisku, 'Mud, [dirt.' (Cree.) The prefix ki or ke, is notihing else than an abbrejviation of kitchi, ' great,' ' large,' and here ' strong.' Examples are [frequent as -kitchuan, -kitchawan, Mass. ; kesi-itsooa"n or ta"n, Abn., [ussi-tchuan, Mass., ' It swift flows.' The prefix is usually applied to streams which rise in the higfhlands and flow down rapidly descending slopes." The final k in some of the early forms, indicates )ronunciation with the gutural aspirate, as met in wank and

28 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

wangh in other local names/ The final i* is a foreign plural usually employed to express " people," or tribe. The stream is now known as the Croten from Cnoten, the name of a resident sachem, which by exchange of n and r, becomes Croten, an equivalent, wrote Dr. Schoolcraft of Noten, Chip., " The wind." " Bounded on the south by Scroton's River " (deed of 1703) ; " Called by the Indians Kightawank, and by the English Knotrus River." (Cal. N. Y, Land Papers, 79.) Titicus, given as the name of a branch of the Croton flowing from Connecticut, is of record Mutighticos and Matightekonks, translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mat'uhtugh-ohke, " Place without wood," from whidh extended to the stream. (See Mattituck and Sackonck. )