The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 7

the Algonkin -g[)a]mi, -g[)o]mi, or -gummee. Kitchi-gami or
'Kechegummee,' the Chippewa name of Lake Superior, is 'the greatest, or chief lake.'
Caucomgomoc, in Maine, is the Abn. kaäkou-gami-k, 'at Big-Gull lake.' Temi-gami, 'deep
lake,' discharges its waters into Ottawa River, in Canada; Kinou-gami, now Kenocami,
'long lake,' into the Saguenay, at Chicoutimi.
There is a Mitchi-gami or (as sometimes written) machi-gummi, 'large lake,' in northern
Wisconsin, and the river which flows from it has received the same name, with the
locative suffix, 'Machig[=a]mig' (for mitchi-gaming). A branch of this river is now called
'Fence River' from a mitchihikan or mitchikan, a 'wooden fence' constructed near its
banks, by the Indians, for catching deer.[29] Father Allouez describes, in the 'Relation'
for 1670 (p. 96), a sort of 'fence' or weir which the Indians had built across Fox River, for
taking sturgeon &c., and which they called 'Mitihikan;' and shortly after, he mentions the
destruction, by the Iroquois, of a village of Outagamis (Fox Indians) near his mission

station, called Machihigan-ing, ['at the mitchihikan, or weir?'] on the 'Lake of the Illinois,'
now Michigan. Father Dablon, in the next year's Relation, calls this lake 'Mitchiganons.'
Perhaps there was some confusion between the names of the 'weir' and the 'great lake,'
and 'Michigan' appears to have been adopted as a kind of compromise between the two. If
so, this modern form of the name is corrupt in more senses than one.[30]
[Footnote 29: Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of Lake Superior, &c., Pt. II p.
400.]
[Footnote 30: Râle gives Abn. mitsegan, 'fianté.' Thoreau, fishing in a river in Maine,
caught several sucker-like fishes, which his Abnaki guide threw away, saying they were
'Michegan fish, i.e., soft and stinking fish, good for nothing.'--Maine Woods, p. 210.]
5. -AMAUG, denoting 'A FISHING PLACE' (Abn. a[n]ma[n]gan, 'on pêche là,') is
derived from the root âm or âma, signifying 'to take by the mouth;' whence, âm-aü, 'he
fishes with hook and line,' and Del. âman, a fish-hook. Wonkemaug for wongun-amaug,
'crooked fishing-place,' between Warren and New Preston, in Litchfield county, is now
'Raumaug Lake.' Ouschank-amaug, in East Windsor, was perhaps the 'eel fishing-place.'
The lake in Worcester, Quansigamaug, Quansigamug, &c., and now Quinsigamond, was
'the pickerel fishing-place,' qunnosuog-amaug.
6. ROCK. In composition, -PISK or -PSK (Abn. pesk[oo]; Cree, -pisk; Chip. -bik;)
denotes hard or flint-like rock;[31] -OMPSK or O[N]BSK, and, by phonetic corruption,
-MSK, (from ompaé, 'upright,' and -pisk,) a 'standing rock.' As a substantival component
of local names, -ompsk and, with the locative affix, -ompskut, are found in such names
as--
[Footnote 31: Primarily, that which 'breaks,' 'cleaves,' 'splits:' distinguishing the harder
rocks--such as were used for making spear and arrow heads, axes, chisels, corn-mortars,
&c., and for striking fire,--from the softer, such as steatite (soap-stone) from which pots
and other vessels, pipe-bowls, &c., were fashioned.]
Petukqui-ompskut, corrupted to Pettiquamscut, 'at the round rock.' Such a rock, on the
east side of Narrow River, north-east from Tower Hill Church in South Kingston, R.I.,
was one of the bound marks of, and gave a name to, the "Pettiquamscut purchase" in the
Narragansett country.
Wanashqui-ompskut (wanashquompsqut, Ezekiel xxvi. 14), 'at the top of the rock,' or at
'the point of rock.' Wonnesquam, Annis Squam, and Squam, near Cape Ann, are perhaps
corrupt forms of the name of some 'rock summit' or 'point of rock' thereabouts.
Winnesquamsaukit (for wanashqui-ompsk-ohk-it?) near Exeter Falls, N.H., has been
transformed to Swampscoate and Squamscot. The name of Swamscot or Swampscot,
formerly part of Lynn, Mass., has a different meaning. It is from m'squi-ompsk, 'Red
Rock' (the modern name), near the north end of Long Beach, which was perhaps "The
clifte" mentioned as one of the bounds of Mr. Humfrey's Swampscot farm, laid out in
1638.[32] M'squompskut means 'at the red rock.' The sound of the initial m was easily lost
to English ears.[33]

[Footnote 32: Mass. Records, i. 147, 226.]
[Footnote 33: Squantam, the supposed name of an Algonkin deity, is only a corrupt form
of the verb m'squantam, = musqui-antam, 'he is angry,' literally, 'he is red (bloody-)
minded.']
Penobscot, a corruption of the Abnaki pa[n]na[oo]a[n]bskek, was originally the name of
a locality on the river so called by the English. Mr. Moses Greenleaf, in a letter to Dr.
Morse in 1823, wrote 'Pe noom´ ske ook' as the Indian name of Old Town Falls, "whence
the English name of the River, which would have been better, Penobscook." He gave, as
the meaning of this name, "Rocky Falls." The St. Francis Indians told Thoreau, that it
means "Rocky River."[34] 'At the fall of the rock' or 'at the descending rock' is a more
nearly exact translation. The first syllable, pen- (Abn. pa[n]na) represents a root meaning
'to fall from a height,'--as in pa[n]n-tek[oo], 'fall of a river' or 'rapids;' pena[n]-ki, 'fall