26 



DICTIONARY OF INDIANS. 



Ohio. — CoHlinued. 



"from the mouth of the river Saint- 

 Louis, called Ohio, 01ii::;hin-sipou and 

 Chukagoua." The latter name is 

 also written Siiskakoua (op. cit., pt. ii, 

 q6). It was most probably a name of 

 Cumberland river. 



The name Ohio is evidently a com- 

 pressed form of the common Iroquoian 

 sentence- word 0'hw"'Iitio' , signifying 

 " It-river is fine, beautiful." It is de- 

 rived from the noun o'lno"'ha', "it- 

 river, it-stream"; the prefixed o is a 

 gender sign, and the adjective -«o', 

 "fine, beautiful," the substantive 

 verb being understood. Hence, Ohio 

 signifies, "It is a beautiful river." 



(j.N.B.H.) 



Pontiac. — An Ottawa chief, born al)out 

 1720, probably on Ottawa river, 

 Canada. Though his paternity is 

 not positively established, it is 

 most likely that his father was an 

 Ottawa chief and his mother an 

 Ojibwa woman. J. Wimer (Events in 

 Ind. Hist., 155, 1842), says that as 

 early as 1746 he commanded the In- 

 dians — mostly Ottawa — who defend- 

 ed Detroit against the attack of 

 the northern tribes. It is supposed 

 he led the Ottawa and Ojibwa war- 

 riors at Braddoek's defeat. He first 

 appears prominently in history at his 

 meeting with Maj. Robert Rogers, in 

 1760, at the place where Cleveland, 

 Ohio, now stands. This officer had 

 been despatched to take possession of 

 Detroit on behalf of the English. 

 Pontiac objected to the further inva- 

 sion of the territory, but, learning 

 that the French had been defeated in 

 Canada, consented to the surrender 

 of Detroit to the English, and was the 

 means of preventing an attack on 

 the latter by a body of Indians at the 

 mouth of the strait. That which 

 gives him most prominence in his- 

 tory and forms the chief episode of 

 his life is the plan he devised for a 

 general uprising of the Indians and 

 the destruction of the forts and set- 

 tlements of the English. He was for 

 a time disposed to be on terms of 

 friendship with the English and con- 

 sented to acknowledge King George, 

 but only as an "uncle," not as a su- 

 perior. Failing to receive the recog- 

 nition he considered his due as a 

 great sovereign, and being deceived 

 by the rumor that the French were 

 preparing for the reconquest of their 

 American possessions, he resolved to 

 put his scheme into operation. Hav- 

 ing brought to his aid most of the 

 tribes northwest of the Ohio, his plan 



was to make a sudden and contem- 

 poraneous attack on all the British 

 posts on the lakes, — at St. Joseph, 

 Ouiatenon, Michilimackinae, and De- 

 troit, — the Miami and Sandusky, and 

 also on the forts at Niagara, Presriue 

 Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, and Pitt (Du 

 Quesne) . The taking of Detroit was 

 to be his special task. The end of 

 May, 1763, was the appointed time 

 when each tribe was to attack the 

 nearest fort, and, after killing the 

 garrison, to fall on the adjacent set- 

 tlements. It was not long before the 

 posts at Sandusky, St. Joseph, Miami 

 (Ft. Wayne), Ouiatenon, Michilimack- 

 inae, Presque Isle, Le Bceuf, and 

 Venango were taken and the garrison 

 in most cases massacred; but the 

 main points, Detroit and Fort Pitt, 

 were successfully defended and the 

 Indians forced to raise the siege. This 

 was a severe blow to Pontiac, but his 

 hopes were finally crushed by the re- 

 ceipt of a letter from M. Neyon, com- 

 mander of Ft. Chartres, advising him 

 to desist from further warfare, as peace 

 had been conckided between France 

 and Great Britain. However, un- 

 willing to abandon entirely his hope 

 of driving back the English, he made 

 an attempt to incite the tribes 

 along the Mississippi to join in an- 

 other effort. Being unsuccessful in 

 this attempt, he finally made peace at 

 Detroit, August 17, 1765. In 1769 he 

 attended a drinking carousal at 

 Cahokia, Illinois, where he was mtu*- 

 dered by a Kaskaskia Indian. Pon- 

 tiac, if not fully the • eqvial of 

 Tecumseh, stands closely second to 

 him in strength of mind and breadth 

 of comprehension. (c.T.) 



Raccoon. — Froin the southern Algon- 

 ( [uian group of dialects. By the early 

 Virginia authors it is variously written 

 rahaugJicuius, rangroiighcuns, aro- 

 coiins, aroughcHus, raroivcuns ,rakowns , 

 racones, arrahacoanes. This well- 

 known animal is described as being 

 "much like a badger, but living on 

 trees like a squirrel." (j.n.b.h.) 



Samp. — The name of a dish prepared 

 from pounded or cracked corn with 

 the flour or finest portion sifted out of 

 it, and boiled with beans or pieces of 

 meat or fish, or with all of these. From 

 the Algonquian dialects of New Eng- 

 land, sampe and nawsaum p being 

 among the early forms used. 



(j.n.b.h.) 



Squash. — The present name of this well- 

 known vegetable is from the Algon- 

 quian dialects spoken in New Eng- 



