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. 308 words

O'Callaghan interpreted the name from Wachcu, "hill," and -keag, "land" or place -- "Hill country," and Dr. Trumbull gave the same meaning from Wadchuauke. The orthography of the second form, however, is probably the most correct -- Machachkeek -- ^which pretty surely, from the locative, stands for Maskckeck, meaning, "Marsh or wet meadow." Wichquanachtekok, the name of the second flat, is no doubt an equivalent of Wequan-achten-uk, "At the end of the hill," from JVequa, "the end" ; -achtene, "hill" or mountain, and -Cik, locative.

HUDSON'S RIVER ON THE WEST. 173

Pachquyak, Pachquyak, Paquiage, etc., forms of the name of the third flat (Pachquayack, 1678), given also as the name of a flat "in the Great ImlDocht," ^ is the equivalent of Panqua-auke, Mass., "Clear land, open country." Brodlhead wrote Paquiage as the name of the place on the west side of the Hudson to which the followers of King Philip retreated in 1675, but the name may have been that of any other open or unoccupied land west of the Hudson. (See Potik.) Paskaecq -- "a certain piece of land at Katskill, on the north side of the kill, called by the Indians Paskaecq, lying under a hill to the west of it." Conveyed to Jan Bronk in 1674-5. The name describes a vale, cleft or valley. It is widely distributed. (See Paskack.) Assiskowachok or Assiskowacheck, the name of record as that of the fourth flat, is no doubt from Assiskeu, "Mud" -- Assiskewmighk-iik, "At (or on) a muddy place." Potic, the name of the fifth flat, is also of record Potick, Potatik, and Potateuck, probably an equivalent of Pozvntiicknk (Mass.), denoting, "Country about the falls." (Trumbull.) From the flat the name was extended to a hill and to a creek in the town of Athens. Hubbard, in his "History of Indian Wars," assigns the same name