RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



the tribe annually claimed their fishing rights, which 

 they never could be persuaded to sell. 



Now, though there are doubtless a few descendants 

 from this ancient people, our thoughts are oftenest 

 turned to them when, by chance, we are lucky enough 

 to turn up an arrow point or find a rude flint chip. Some 

 very fortunate persons have found banner stones, pieces 

 of crude pottery or spear points of fine workmanship. 

 One legacy they have left which should be preserved 

 with the greatest care— the legacy of names. There is 

 not a town where we do not find hill, lake or stream 

 bearing an Indian name. Unfortunately there is a ten- 

 dency to rechristen natural objects and too often to give 

 them merely sentimental names, or names of temporary 

 owners. As a nation we lack originality and imagina- 

 tion in our names. We have found it easier to say North 

 Pond than Keheketookosook, to say Lakeville Lake 

 than Wononscopomoc, and yet how much more indi- 

 vidualistic are the Indian names than those given by 

 the white men! And if the Indian name be retained, it 

 has the advantage claimed by the students of Greek and 

 Latin — it belongs to a dead language and will not 

 change; whereas Dow Hill is Dow Hill only as long 

 as Dows live there— then it becomes in turn Huntington 

 Hill, Parker Hill, Hale Hill, and Russell Hill, all 

 within the memory of man. So let us forswear the 

 questionable glory of giving our name to our village or 



