Part 67 (1/2)

TAPPAN SEA.--It is perceived from Vanderdonk, and from old maps and records, that a band of Indians lived here, who were called the ”_Tappansees_.”

POUGHKEEPSIE is a derivative of _Au-po-keep-sing, i.e._, Place of shelter. The entrance of the Fall Kill into the Hudson is the feature meant.

c.o.xACKIE, is evidently made up in the original from _kuk_, to cut, and _aukie_, earth, which was, probably, in old days, as it is in fact yet, a graphic description of a ridge cut and tumbled in by the waters of the Hudson pressing hard on that sh.o.r.e.

CLAVERACK is not Indian. _Clove_, in the Hollandais, is an opening or side-gorge in the valley. _Rack_, is a reach or bend in the river, the whole length of which was known, as we see, to the old skippers as separate _racks_. The _reach of cloves_ began at what is now the city of Hudson, the old Claverack landing.

TAWASENTHA.--Normanskill is the first Iroquois name noticed. It means the hill of the dead. Albany itself has taken the name of a Scottish dukedom for its ancient Iroquois cognomen, Ske-nek-ta-dea: of this compound term, _Ske_ is a propositional particle, and means beyond; _nek_ is the Mohawk name for a pine; and the term _ta-dea_ is descriptive of a valley.

_18th_. Reached Detroit in the steamer ”Gen. Wayne,” and a.s.sumed the duties of my new appointment. One of the earliest Was.h.i.+ngton papers I opened, gave an account of the death of Mr. William Ward, a most valuable clerk in the Indian Bureau; a man of a fine literary taste, who formerly edited and established the _North-west Journal_, at the City of Detroit.

_19th_. A singular denouement is made this morning, which appeals strongly to my feelings. On getting in the stage at Vernon, in Western New York, a gentleman of easy manners, good figure, and polite address, whom we will call Theodoric, kindly made way for me and my family, which led us to notice him, and we traveled together quite to Detroit, and put up at the same hotel. This morning a note from him reveals him to be a young Virginian, seeking his fortune west, and out of funds, and makes precisely such an appeal as it is hard, and wrong in fact, to resist. I told Theodoric to take his trunk and go, by the next steamer, to my house at Mackinack, and I should be up in a short time, and furnish him employment in the Indian department.

_25th_. Rev. Mr. Lukenbach, of the Moravian towns, Canada, writes, that the proportional annuity of the Christian Indians, for 1838, is unpaid.

He says they were paid 33/100ths, in 1837, being one-third of the original annuity. He states that Mr. Vogler and Mr. Mickeh arrived on the Kanzas with upwards of seventy souls, having left nearly one hundred at Green Bay, who are to follow them; and that these two men have commenced a new mission among the Delawares. Mr. L. says that there are but about one hundred and twenty souls left, who propose to remain in Canada with him.

_30th_. Ke-bic! An exclamation of the Algonquins in pa.s.sing dangerous rocky sh.o.r.es in their canoes, when the current is strong. Query. Is not this the origin of the name Quebec?

_May 2d_. Major Garland, my predecessor in the disburs.e.m.e.nts, writes from Was.h.i.+ngton: ”You have a heavy task on your hands for this season; and, in addition to the hands of Briareus, you will need the eyes of Argus.”

_3d_. I made the payments to the Saginaw chiefs in specie, under the treaty of the 14th of January, 1837.

_10th_. Mr. F.W. Shearman, the able and ingenious editor of the _Journal of Education_, writes from Marshall, that it receives an increased circulation and excites a deeper interest in the people, with his plans for further improvements.

_16th_. Letters from Mackinack informs me that the Ottawas design leaving their location in the United States for the Manitouline Islands, in Canada, where inducements are held out to them by agents of the British government. They fear going west: they cling to the north.

_20th_. The Harpers, publishers at New York, send me copies of the first issue of my _Algic Researches_, in two vols., 12mo. They intend to _publish_ the work on the 1st proximo.

_23d_. Letters from Was.h.i.+ngton speak of the treasury as being low in specie funds.

_24th_. Sales of the lands of the Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas, are made at the Land Office in Detroit, in conformity with the treaty of May 9th, 1836. The _three_ years that have elapsed in this operation, have brought the prices of lands from the summer heat to the zero of prices.

_27th. Na_, in the Algonquin language, means excellent or transcendent, and _wa_, motion. Thus the names of two chiefs who visited me to day on business, are _Na-geezhig_, excellent or transcendent day, and _Ke-wa-geezhig_, or returning cloud. Whether the word _geezhig_ shall be rendered day, or cloud, or sky, depends on the nature of its prefix. To move back is _ke-wa_, and hence the prefixed term to the latter name.

_June 4th_. Received from Col. De Garme Jones, Mayor of Detroit, sundry ma.n.u.script doc.u.ments relative to the administration of Indian affairs of Gov. Hull, of the dates of 1807, '8 and '9.

Mr. Johnstone, of Aloor, near Edinburgh, Scotland, brings me a note of introduction from Gen. James Talmadge, of New York. Mr. J. is a highly respected man at home, and is traveling in America to gratify a laudable curiosity.

_7th_. Reached Mackinack, on board the steamer Great Western, Capt.

Walker.

_10th_. _The Albany Evening Journal_ has a short editorial under the head of _Algic Researches_: ”Such is the t.i.tle of a work from our countryman Schoolcraft, which the Harpers have just published, in two volumes. It consists of Tales and Legends, which the Author has gleaned in the course of his long and familiar intercourse with the children of the Forest, ill.u.s.trating the mental powers and characteristics of the North American Indians.

”Mr. Schoolcraft has traveled far into the western wilds. He has lived much with the Indians, and has studied their character thoroughly. He is withal a scholar and a gentleman, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for the excellence of all he writes.”

_11th_. I set out to complete the apprais.e.m.e.nt of the Indian improvements on the north sh.o.r.e of Lake Huron, under the 8th article of the treaty of March 28th, 1836.

_12th_. Paid the Indians of L'Arbre Croche villages at Little Traverse Bay, the amount of the apprais.e.m.e.nt of their _public_ improvements, made under the treaty of 1836.

_13th_. Proceed to Grand Traverse Bay, to view the location of a mission by Messrs. Dougherty and Fleming. Found it located on the sands, near the bottom of the bay, where a vessel could not unload, at a point so utterly dest.i.tute of advantages that it would not have been possible to select a worse site in the compa.s.s of the whole bay, which is large, and abounds in s.h.i.+p harbors. Condemned the site forthwith, and the same day removed the site of operations to Kosa's village, on a bay near the end of the peninsula. I afterwards encamped on the open lake sh.o.r.e, behind a sand drift, to avoid the force of the wind, and, as soon as the waters of the lake lulled, made the traverse to the Beaver Islands, to appraise the value of the Indian improvements at that place, and, having done this, put across to the main sh.o.r.e north, for the same purpose. In this trip Mr. Turner accompanied me to keep the lists, and Dr. Dougla.s.s to vaccine the Indians, the latter of whom reported 214 persons as having submitted to receive the virus.

The Albany papers continue to publish notices of _Algic Researches_. The _Argus_ of the 13th June, says: ”Mr. H.R. Schoolcraft has added another to his claims upon the consideration of the reading public, by a recent work (from the press of the Messrs. Harper), ent.i.tled '_Algic Researches_, comprising inquiries respecting the mental characteristics of the North American Indians.' It is the first of a series, which the author promises to continue at a future day, ill.u.s.trative of the mythology, distinctive opinions, and intellectual character of the aborigines. These volumes comprise their oral tales, with preliminary observations and a general introduction. The term _Algic_, is introduced by the author, in a generic sense, for all the tribes, with few exceptions, that were found in 1600 spread out between the Atlantic and the Mississippi.