108 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. | Dec. 8, 
Mr. Swetland gave little attention to the logical construction of 
sentences, and his statement “‘a sort of root from which they made 
bread, they call it ook-te-haw,” leaves the reader—unversed in the 
Indian language—in doubt whether the term ook-te-haw applies to 
root or bread. In the Seneca dialect root is pronounced oke-tah’-a. 
Beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips are all called roots and distinguished 
by their color, as oke-tah-a, root ; oke-tah-dane-yo, roots ; quin-tah-a, 
red ; jit-qua-a, yellow ; no-wunt-da-a, white. In some cases the name 
of a root is circumstantial, and either describes the particular root or 
explains its quality and use. The Seneca word for bread is o-ak’-qua. 
It would thus appear that the term ook-te-haw, if the orthography is 
correct, did not apply to either word, root or bread, in its specific 
sense. According to the Seneca principle? of uniting nouns and 
adjectives to form new words, the compound term for bread-root would 
be oke-tah-ak’-qua; and it is clear that ook-te-haw was the proper 
name of a particular root then in such common use that a special 
description was deemed unnecessary ; our inquiry therefore, properly 
includes the identity of this root. j 
In writing of the root ook-te-haw Mr. Swetland evidently had no 
reference to either the potato (Solanum tuberosum) or the ground nut 
(Aptos tuberosa) as he in several instances distinctly mentions those 
articles of food by their common names ; yet a partial history of these 
native plants is essential in our line of evidence. . 
Seneca tradition asserts that the Iroquois originally consisted of 
two tribes named after the bear and deer, each tribe using a picture or 
crude drawing of its appellative animal as a totem or clan mark. 
These tribes or clans increased in number and in the distribution of 
sachemships at the institution of the League, about the middle of the 
15th century, eight distinct clans were recognized. The Paris Docu- 
ments of 1666 contain an extended account of the Iroquois cantons at 
that date, and name nine tribes giving the title of the sixth as Scone- 
scheoronon or Potato people; the clan totem consisting of a string of 
potatoes. It is probable that this tribe was originally composed of 
captives whose special food consisted of potatoes, or whose particular 
business was the cultivation of that class of roots. Later designators 
of tribal names omit that of the Potato people, who had either received 
a new clan title, or been absorbed by other tribes. 
An early historical mention of the potato is found in the journal 
of Thomas Herriot, who came to America in 1584 in the expedition of 
Sir Walter Raleigh. ‘“‘Openawk,” says Herriot, “are a kind of roots 
of round form, some of the bigness of walnuts, some far greater, which 
2 Drop all letters following the inital consonant of the last syllable of the noun, and all letters 
following the first consonant of the adjective, then suffix the latter to the former. 
