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. 329 words

The suffixed locative, -uiik, seems to have been generally used in connectioii with the names of hills. Pompton -- Ponton, East N. J. Records, 1695 ; Pompeton, Pumpton, Pompeto)!, N. Y. Records -- now preserved in Pompton as the name of a village at the junction of the Pequannock, the Wynokie, and the Ramapo, and coutinued as the name of the united stream south of Pompton Village to its junction with the Passaic, and also as the name of a town in Passaic County, N. J., as well as in Pompton Falls, Pompton Plains, etc., and historically as the name of an Indian clan, appears primarily as the name of the Ramapo River as now known. It is not met in early New York Records, but in English Records, in 1694, a tract of land is described as being "On a river called Paquannock, or Pasqueck, near the faills of Pampe- •ton," and in 1695, in application to lands described as lying "On Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Paquanneck River," the particular place referred to being known as Ramopuch, and now as Rainapo. (See Ramapo.) Rev. Heckewelder located the name at the mouth of the Pompton (as now known) where it falls into the Passaic, and interpreted it from Pihni (root Pimc), "Crooked mouth," an interpretation now rejected by Algonquian students from the fact that the mouth of the stream is nOt crooked. A reasonable suggestion is that the original was Pom of en, a representative town, or a combination of towns. ^ wihich would readily be converted to Pompton. In 1710, "Memerescum, 'sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan,' gave title to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties." (Nelson, "Indians of New Jersey," iii), indicating a combination of dlans.