Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names
Schenectady, now so written, is claimed by some authorities to be an anglicism of a Mohawk-Iroquoian verbal primarily applied by them to Fort Orange (Albany), with the interpretations, "The place we arrive at by passing through the pine trees" (Bleecker) ; "Beyond the opening" (L. H. Morgan) ; "Beyond (or on the other side) of the door" (O'Callaghan), and by Horatio Hale : "The name means simply, 'beyond the pines.' from oneghta (or skaneghet), 'pine,' and adi or ati, a prepositional suffix (if such an expression vcolY be allowed), meaning 'beyond,' or 'on the other side of.' The suffix is derived from skati, side. It was equally applicable to Albany or Schenectady, both being reached from the Mohawk castles by passing through openings in the pine forest." Mr. Hale's interpretation, from the standpoint of a Mohawk term, is exhaustive and no doubt correct, and the correctness of the preceding interpretations may be admitted from the combinations which may have
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been employed to determine the object of which askati was "one •side," as in "Skanndtati, de un coste du village," or the end of, as in "Skannhahati, a I'autre bout de la cabane" (Bruyas). The word docs not appear to mean "beyond," but one side or one end of anything. Aside from a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Schenectady was primarily a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk Skannatati with the original Dutch Schaenhecstede, the primary application of which is amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without standing in that connection, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch^ substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly stated.