1 66 * NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Huron tongue. This fact invalidates Mr Hale's idea that it was 

 of Huron origin, deriving it primarily from garokzva, a pipe, and 

 thence from the indeterminate verb ierokzva, they who smoke. 

 As all Indians smoked, this has no force. He hazarded another 

 supposition, that, as Maquas were sometimes termed Bears, for 

 which the Mohawk name was Ohkzvari, and the Cayuga lakwai 

 (Yekzvai in Schoolcraft), the term Iroquois might have come from 

 this. Mr Brant-sero would derive it from the Mohawk I-ili rongzve, 

 I am the Real Man; Mr David Boyle from karakzva, the sun. 

 All these conjectures are plausible, but we must remember that 

 the name was Algonquin, and that the termination was in com- 

 mon use by that family at that time, as applied to nations and 

 tribes, having the force of the Iroquois ronon or people. One has 

 but to remember the Abenaquois, Soriquois, Almouchiquois, 

 Charioquois or Hurons, and many others, to see what the ter- 

 minal means. 



Recognizing its Algonquin origin, Mr J. N. B. Hewitt says it 

 *' suggests the Algonquin words irin, true or real ; ako, snake ; 

 with the French termination ois, the word becomes Iriiiakois.'' 

 This is much better, if not quite satisfactory, but quois is still 

 the terminal of many tribal names. It may have come from ahki, 

 a place. Iroquet, a chief whose people were called after him, 

 was also an Algonquin. The latest y\lgonquin dictionaries of 

 the eastern nations do not contain Mr Hewitt's words. The 

 nearest approach to ako is achgook. 



Generally the site of the formative council has been placed on 

 the northeastern shore of Onondaga lake, a very suitable spot, 

 but some later Onondagas have assigned it to the center of Syra- 

 cuse, equally unsuitable in early days. Some wampum belts 

 have been made coeval with the league, a date much too early. 

 Hiawatha's white canoe is prominent in the story, bringing him 

 to his first labors and bearing him aloft when all w^as done. The 

 latter suggests Christian teaching but was not foreign to abo- 

 riginal thought. Historically, as he left the lake for the Mohawk 

 country, his white birch canoe may have been a strong contrast 

 to the dark elm bark canoes of the rest. 



