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. 292 words

Mawighanuck, Mawighunk, Waweighanuck, Wawighnuck, forms of the name preserved as that of the Bayard Patent, Columbia County, described as a place "Lying to the northwest of Kinderhook, about fifteen miles from Hudson's River, upon Kinderhook River and some branches thereof, part of which tract is known by the Indian name of Mawig'hanuck." The particular "part" noted has not been located, but it seems to have been where one of the branches of Kinderhook Creek united with that stream. (See Mawichnauk.) Mogongh=kamigh, a boundmark of the Bayard Patent (Land Papers, 245), is located therein, "From a fall on said river called by the Indians Kasesjewack to a certain place called by the natives Mogongh-kamigh, then up the southeast branch," etc. The name means, probably, "Place of a great tree." Kenaghtiquak, " a small stream " so called, was the name of a boundmark of the Peter Schuyler Patent, described, "Beginning where three oak trees are marked, lying upon a small creek, to the south of Pomponick, called by the Indians Kenaghtiquak, and running tlience," etc. It probably standi for Enaughtiqua-uk, " The beginning place." Machachoesk, a place so called in Columbia County, has not been located. It is described of record as a place "lying on both sides of Kinderhook Creek," and may have taken its name from an adjacent feature. Wapemwatsjo, the name of a hill in Columbia County, is a Dutch orthography of JVapim-ivadchu, "Chestnut Hill." The interpretation iscorrectly given in the accompanying alternate, "or Karstengeberg" (Kastanjeberg, Dutch), "Chestnut Hill." Kaunaumeek, an Indian village sixteen miles east of Albany, in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, was the scene of the labors of Moravian missionaries, and especially of Missionary Brainerd. It was long known as Brainerd's Bridge, and is now called