174 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ots-da'-wa creek. This is also the name of a postoffice in Otego. 



Ot-se-go creek was also called Otsgo in the Sullivan campaign. 



Ot-se'-go. Morgan has Ote-sa'-ga for the lake and Cooperstown, 

 but with no definition. It was mentioned in 1753 by the Rev. Gideon 

 Hawley and written as now. Sauthier's map has Otsega, but it 

 is Ostega on that of the New Hampshire grants. More than a 

 century since Ostenha was one name for the lake, and Cooper said 

 that the large stone at the outlet still retained the name of the 

 Otsego rock when he wrote Deer slayer. Father Bruyas gives 

 ostenra as a rock: Schoolcraft has otsteaha for rock in Mohawk, 

 and otsta in Oneida. Adding the locative and making due allow- 

 ance for changes, it is reasonable to interpret this place of the rock. 

 In Halsey's Old New York Frontier is a view of this great stone. 



Another possible but less probable origin may be mentioned. 

 Atsagannen, in Mohawk, was to he a stranger, or to speak a dif- 

 ferent language, as the Delawares did, who at first lived in that 

 direction and may have had early contact with the Iroquois there. 

 This word differs little from some early forms of the name, though 

 preference is given to the first definition. In Campbell's Annals of 

 Tryon County another meaning is suggested. He said : "The water 

 is deep and clear, which is said to be the meaning of its Indian 

 name." There seems no support for this. Schoolcraft said : 

 "Otsego is derivative from an Iroquois particle, denoting bodies of 

 water, and hence becomes by ellipsis, the name for lake, as we 

 observe it in Otisco. The term ego means beautiful, as we find it in 

 the word Oswego, which is the Onondaga term for Ontario, the 

 latter being in the Wyandot language." It is needless to comment 

 on this. 



O-wer-i-ho'-wet, a branch of the Susquehanna, is mentioned on 

 land papers in Albany. 



' O-war-i-o'-neck suggests the last, and was west of Unadilla and 

 on the south side of the river. A. Cusick defined this as where the 

 teacher lived, and it may refer to one of the Indian schools held in 

 that region in the later colonial days, and which were sometimes 

 migratory. Halsey thought this was Carr's creek. 



• Lake Sa-te-i-yi-e-non, a small lake on Pouchot's map, south of 

 Otsego and Schuyler lakes, would be in Middlefield were the map 

 correct. But while it is made a head of the Susquehanna on this, 



