Friday, December 01, 2017

Wâunonaqussuk

wâunon- ‘honor’ + qussuk ‘stone’ = wâunonaqussuk – ‘honoring stone’
"...a long, low boulder with many small, round stones on top." 

(Wawanaquas- sik, ‘place of many honoring stones,’- Nochpeem Mahikkaneuw/Wappinger, Ruttenber 1992b:373). https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas

Wawanaquasick, stone-heaps on the north line, "here the Indians have laid several heaps of stones together by an ancient custom among them;" (Page 19)
Wawanaquasick
   “JOSEPH VAN GELDER – That he is Forty Eight Years of Age  He understood the Indian language  that he knows a place called Wawanaquasick  it lies between Claverack and Sheffield one Breakfast Travel from the River to wawanaquasick.  it lies about 9 or 10 Miles East from the River – has seen it often has traveled.  It lies upon the East part of a Hill  has heard of it high thiry Year ago from old Indians who told him it was wawanaquasick and Said it was an old Place they had there, a great many years ago – Old Nannahaken and old Skannout old Panneyote who were Ancient Indians told him so.  Old Skannout was quite grey with Years – Nanahacken about 70 Years then, and old Skannout appeared older then Ampawekine called Sankenakeke who was the Sachem of the Mohickens also told him of it.  He was then better than Sixty Years of Age, they were all of the Mowhickens Tribe  the Indians told him it was an offering Place of their old fore fathers and a boundary between the tribes Mohickens and the River Indians  the Eastern Tribes was called Mohigens and lived at Stockbridge he is sure – the Indians told him Wawanaquasick was a boundary between the Mohicken and the River Indians  they used to join together when they went to war...”
Wawanaquasick ~ Location in Town of Livingston, Columbia Co., N.Y.

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