6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the formation of aboriginal words, which may be helpful to 

 many. Students of Indian words will find Filling's Algonquin 

 and Iroquois bibliographies very useful. 



The names given are local, though sometimes derived from the 

 names of persons. Of the latter I have several thousands con- 

 nected with New York, mostly Iroquois, but fully representative of 

 the less important Algonquin tribes. All have dates, and many of 

 them interesting histories. The mere mention of this fact shows 

 how large were the powers of those languages which will soon be 

 classed among those which are dead. In a list of 1885 lakes and 

 ponds of the United States, 285 have Indian names still and more 

 than a thousand rivers and streams have names from the same 

 source. Half the names of our states and territories are in the 

 same class, and most of our great lakes and rivers. 



It is not necessary to prefer Indian place names to others. They 

 are not always pleasanter in sound, and are rarely poetical, yet we 

 are glad to retain many of them. Some of our very finest names 

 in New York are aboriginal, but names derived from our own ances- 

 try, dear to us from historic or personal associations, full of 

 meaning even to the untrained ear, may be just as good as abo- 

 riginal names which mean nothing at all to us, or perhaps any one 

 else. It is just as incongruous to place an Indian prairie name 

 among our mountains as it was to plant the names of Pompey, 

 Cicero and Virgil ^in central New York. Onondaga is not appro- 

 priate on our western plains. 



In the stvidy of our New York aboriginal names we fortunately 

 have early and valuable aids. The French and English missionaries 

 translated books of devotion and portions of the Bible, often 

 describing languages and preparing vocabularies. The Iroquois 

 were greatly favored in this way, though most of this linguistic 

 work fell to the lot of the Mohawks and Senecas. The Moravians 

 had men at Onondaga for several successive years merely to study 

 the language. In Iroquois councils the interpreter was one of 

 importance for nearly two centuries, nor has his usefulness yet 

 ceased. In direct and indirect ways much useful material has been 

 gained and preserved, and when these languages cease to be spoken 

 they will still be read and tmderstood. To aid in all this is the 

 purpose of these pages. 



