Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names
The very high 'hill, and the flat lands which he referred to, remain. On the 2 1 St, before reaching the second stream which he noted later as having crossed, he wrote that "half a mile" west of Canajohare Creek he came to a village of "nine houses of the name of Osqiiage'' which gave name to the stream now known as the Otsqiiage, which he also called Okqiiage and Okwahohage, "Wolves" -- a village of the Wolf tribe. On the 23d he forded the Otsquage, and after going "half a mile" (Dutch) tvest of that stream, came "to a village named Cawaoge." It had fourteen houses and stood "on a very' high hill." On his return trip he wrote the name Naivaoga; on old maps it is CanazOadage, and has since 1635 been known as the Nozuadage or Fort Plain Creek. He did not cross this stream, but after stopping at the village for a short time moved on "by land," presumably inland either north or south, and "going another mile" came to the "Fourth Castle," w'hich he called Tenotoge and Tenotohage, and Father Jogues called Teoiionfc-ogen, and also "the furthest castle." It was no doubt the principal castle of the Wolf tribe, strongly palisaded to defend the western approach to the seat of the nation, as was Onekagoncka to guard the east. It was, he wrote, composed of fifty-five houses like the others. 'It stood in a valley evidently, probably on the bank of the creek, as he wrote that the stream (Otsquaga) which 'he had crossed in the morning "ran past" the castle ; that he saw on the opposite (east) "bank" of the stream "a good many houses filled with com and beans," and also extensive flat lands. Further than this topographical description the location of the castle cannot be determined.^ Van Curler's miles to the castle from Onekagonka, ^ In the town of Minclen, four miles south of Fort Plain, on a tongue of land formed by the Otsquaga Creek and one of its tributaries, are the remains of an ancient fortification, showing a curved line two hundred and forty feet in length, inclosing an area of about^ seven acres.