The indigenous names of the Capital Region

ALBANY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — October 14 marks both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States. The latter honors and celebrates Native Indigenous Americans in opposition of Columbus Day .

In the Capital Region, many names of towns, bodies of water, and more have Native American origins. Here are some of those names and what they mean.

Adirondacks

According to the Visit Adirondacks website, the word “Adirondack” originated as a derogatory term given to the Algonquin tribe by the Mohawk, meaning “barkeaters.” The Adirondack Park was established in 1892 by New York State and is the largest park in the lower 48 states.

Canajoharie

According to the Canajoharie Town Historian, the name is derived from the Mohawk name “Can-a-jor-ha,” which means the “pot that washes itself.” The name comes from the creek flowing through the area with a giant pot hole at the base of the falls.

Cohoes

According to CityTownInfo.com, Cohoes derives its name from a Mohawk expression meaning “Place of the Falling Canoe,” in reference to the Cohoes waterfall. Cohoes was incorporated as a village in 1848, and reincorporated as a city in 1869.

Copake

According to the Historic Copake website , town’s name is derived from “Achkookpeck,” which means “Snake Pond” Snake Pond was the original Mohican name for what is now known as Copake Lake.

Coxsackie

According to the Town of Coxsackie website, the name is derived from a Native American term that has had over 60 different spellings including Koxhacking, Koixhacking, and Koxsackie. There are also multiple translations such as “Hoot of the Owl,” “Place of Owls,” and “Migrating Geese.”

Glens Falls

Glens Falls was originally called “Chepontuc,” a Mohawk word meaning “hard place to get around.” The area had a waterfall at the time that blocked the Hudson River. In 1763, Abraham Wing formed a settlement called “Wing’s Falls” but later lost the name of the town to Colonel Johannes Glen to settle a debt. According to GlensFalls.com, Glen changed the name to Glen’s Falls, and the apostrophe was eventually dropped.

Hoosic/Hoosac/Hoosick

The river that runs for 76 miles along New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont has several different ways to spell its name: Hoosic, Hoosac, Hoosick or Hoosuck. The names are derived from the Algonquian name for the river, which either means “the beyond place” or “the stony place.”

Kayaderosseras

The Kayaderosseras is full encompassed in Saratoga County and runs from Corinth to Saratoga Lake. The Mohawk tribe reportedly named the creek Kayaderosseras, which means “Valley of the Crooked Stream.”

Lake George

According to the Town of Lake George website, Lake George was formerly called “Caldwell,” named after James Caldwell. The lake itself was originally called “Andia-ta-roc-te” by the Native Americans and was later named “Lac du St. Sacrement.” The lake was finally named Lake George by Sir William Johnson in 1755 for his King, George II of England. The area was renamed Lake George in 1962.

Niskayuna

The name Niskayuna is derived from the Connestigione Indians who occupied the area when the Dutch arrived around 1642. According to the Town of Niskayuna website, the name, meaning “extensive corn flats,” evolved from the original “Canastagione.”

Sacandaga

According to the Great Sacandaga Lake website , the name “Sacandaga” means “Land of the Waving Grass” in the Mohawk language.

Saratoga Springs

The area springs attracted settlers to the region in the early 1800s. Mineral water, for drinking and bathing, caused the explosive development of the city, said the Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center website. The springs are the only naturally carbonated mineral springs east of the Rocky Mountains.

Before being named Saratoga Springs, the area was known as Serachtague, “place of swift water,” to the Mohawks and other Native Americans and was sacred to them. They believed the water had been stirred by the God Manitou, endowing it with healing properties.

Schaghticoke

According to the Schaghticoke First Nations website , Schaghticoke in Renseelaer County is names for the indigenous Schaghticoke tribe of the Hudson and Harlem Valleys. The name means “the Mingling of waters,” which signifies the joining of rivers and the merging of related Algonquian-speaking Tribes.

Schenectady

The area that is now Schenectady was originally the land of the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Nation, said the City of Schenectady website. When Dutch settlers arrived in the Hudson Valley in the 17th century, the Mohawk called the settlement at Fort Orange “Schau-naugh-ta-da,” meaning “over the pine plains.” Eventually, Dutch settlers started using the word, but the meaning was reversed, and the name referred to the bend in the Mohawk River where the city is today.

Schodack

According to the Town of Schodack website, the name is derived from the Mohican word “escudahki.” In their language, “escudah” is the word for “fire,” and the suffix “ki” means “place of.”

Schoharie

The name “Schoharie” is derived from the native word To-Was-Scho-Hor, meaning “driftwood”, a reference to the large driftwood piles that would accumulate in the Schoharie Creek, said the Village of Schoharie website.

Taconic

According to the Historic Copake website , Taconic comes from the Mohican word “Tachkanick,” which means “land of flowing waters.” The Taconic Mountains spans 150 miles along the New York, Massachusetts and Vermont borders.

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