A Place of Many Names
New York City has been known by many names among native people. It was Kanonoge, "place of reeds," to Mohawk people living up the Hudson River. It was Menatay (island) to the Delaware people. Algonquin-speaking Munsee people knew the island as Manatuouh, "place for gathering firewood," and Manahachtanienk, "place of general inebriation." These are typical of native placenames, which usually reflect environmental or social conditions - in the last case, a half-humorous, half-bitter awareness of the problems of alcohol.
Other Algonquin-speaking people sharing similar customs, cultures and beliefs journeyed to Manhattan. Mohegans and Pequots from eastern Connecticut, native Long Islanders like the Montauks and Shinnecocks, and other people living east to the sunrise navigated dugout canoes tow (sic) the place now called New York Harbor. Manicans journeyed down the river while Unami and other southern Delaware people paddled north. Algonquin dialects were similar enough for communication, but different enough to preserve tribal uniqueness.
Although languages such as Mohawk, spoken by the nearby Iroquois, differ from Algonquin tongues as much as English differs from Chinese, intertwining circles of trade, kinship and politics connect all the region's
people like beads on a sinew string. Today, many Indian names remain in the New York City area, such as Rockaway (sandy place) and Nyack (point of land). These place names remind native people of ancestors who together smelled the salt air of the same ocean.
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