DICTIONARY OF INDIANS. 



27 



Squash. — Continued. 



land. Early authors wrote the name 

 in a variety of ways, among them 

 being squantersquash and squanter- 

 squashes, askutasquashes , isquonier- 

 squoashes, isquoter squashes, and is- 

 quoukersquashes . In English usage 

 the fore-part of the Indian term has 

 been discarded. (j.n.b.h.) 



Succotash. — From the Algonquian dia- 

 lects of New England, written msick- 

 quatash by Roger Williams. The 

 dish consisted of the whole grains of 

 green corn cut or scraped from the 

 cob, with which beans of various 

 kinds were usually mixed, and boiled 

 as a stew or pudding. (j.n.b.h.) 



Susquehanna. — Algonquian in origin, 

 this river name was written Sasqiie- 

 sahanocks by Capt. John Smith in 

 1606; but in this form it is hybrid, 

 the final 5 being the English suffix in- 

 dicating the plural form of nouns. 

 Sasquesahanock is then the aboriginal 

 form with which present inquiry is 

 concerned, but this appellation is 

 sometimes written Sa5(3'»g/ianna; both, 

 however, are correct. Sasquesa is a 

 derivative adjective form of asisku or 

 asiskwa, signifying "mud or clay," 

 and means therefore "muddy or 

 roily." But the bare noun may also 

 be employed in compounds with an 

 adjective force, giving rise to the 

 second form of the term in question. 

 The next element is han or hanna, 

 meaning "river or stream of water"; 

 and the last is ock, a locative suffix, 

 signifying, "at," "at the place of." 

 Hence, Susquchayina signifies, "At 

 the roily or muddy river." Smith 

 thus applied a place-name to a peo- 

 ple, (j.n.b.h.) 



Tecumseh, more strictly Tecumthe. — 

 A celebrated Shawnee chief, born in 

 1768 at a former Indian village on 

 Mad river, near Springfield, Ohio. 

 His father, Puckeshinwa, was a mem- 

 ber of the Kiscopoke (Tiger?) gens of 

 the tribe and his mother, Methoa- 

 taske, of the Turtle gens. His father 

 rose to the rank of chief, and fell in 

 the battle of the Kanawha in 1774. 

 After the death of his father Tecum- 

 seh was placed in charge of his oldest 

 brother, Cheeseekau, who, it is said, 

 labored to lead him to a high Indian 

 standard of a warrior's life. He seems 

 to have had a passion for war from 

 his boyhood. Previous to 1791 he 

 took part in some war expeditions to 

 the south and west, and during 1792- 

 93 joined in several forays on the 

 white settlements and in resisting 



the attack of the Kentucky volun- 

 teers. He took an active part in the 

 Indian effort to resist Anthony 

 Wayne. About 1805 or 1806 he be- 

 gan, in connection with his brother 

 Elskwatawa, the "Prophet," to de- 

 velop his scheme of uniting the west- 

 em tribes in an effort to resist the 

 further advance of the whites. He 

 claimed that the whole country be- 

 longed to the tribes in common, hence 

 a sale of land to the whites by one 

 tribe did not convey title unless con- 

 firmed by the other tribes. He there- 

 fore seriously protested against the 

 cession of lands made about that 

 time to the whites by the Miami and 

 other tribes, or, as is probable, these 

 were used as a pretext for advancing 

 his scheme of tmited effort. Another 

 part of his program, probably in part 

 the offering of his brother's niind, was 

 that there should be no more fighting 

 between tribes, the people should 

 abandon the use of intoxicating 

 liquors, and wear skins instead of 

 blankets as their ancestors had done. 

 The various tribes from the Great 

 Lakes to the Gulf were visited and 

 the plan unfolded to them. General 

 W. H. Harrison, then governor of 

 Northwest Territory, warned the 

 movers in this scheme to desist, and 

 held several interviews with Tecum- 

 seh, but these efforts were productive 

 of no steps toward peace. The war 

 began, but Tecumseh' s plans were 

 blasted by the defeat of the Indians 

 at Tippecanoe, which was brought on 

 by his brother while Tecumseh was 

 absent in the south and contrary to 

 his positive order. After this he 

 joined the English and was killed at 

 the battle of the Thames, Oct. ^, 18 13. 

 In estimating the character of Te- 

 cumseh the language of Tnnnbull 

 (Indian Wars) may be accepted with 

 assurance: " He was the most extra- 

 ordinary Indian that has appeared in 

 history [of the United States]. He 

 would have been a great man in any 

 age or nation. Independent, of the 

 most consummate courage and skill 

 as a warrior, and with all the charac- 

 teristic acuteness of his race, he was 

 endowed by nature with the attri- 

 butes of mind necessary for great 

 political combinations." Although 

 enthusiastic in behalf of what he be- 

 lieved to be for the welfare of his 

 race, he was not blind to the power 

 of the United States. He was aware 

 that the only hope of preventing a 

 further advance of the whites was by 

 a union of the tribes. He discarded 

 the idea of the right of discovery and 



