1860 “A Sketch of the Early History of Ferrisburg.” Vermont Quarterly Gazeteer

Dear Readers,

I was compelled to post this article of my grandfathers, grandfather, John "Jean Baptiste" Watso naming of the Champlain Valley in the Abenaki language, enjoy the beauty: 

Robinson, R.E. 1860. “A Sketch of the Early History of Ferrisburg.” Vermont Quarterly Gazeteer, Abby Maria Hemenway, ed. 1:31-35.

From pages 31-32:

            If the traditions of the St. Francois Indians are to be relied on, the eastern shore of Lake Champlain was anciently inhabited by the Zoquageers, a subdivision of the great Abenakee tribe or nation which once occupied the northern part of New England.  By the forays of their enemies, the warlike Iroquois, and the encroachment of the whites, the Zoquageers were gradually driven from Vermont, and their last village of consequence within its limits, was on Missisque Bay, in the present town of Alburgh.  They had, for the most part, removed before the Revolution to the St. Francois River, in Canada, where the survivors of this once powerful tribe now live, commonly known as the St. Francois Indians, though they style themselves as of old, Zoquageers and Abenakees, or as they pronunce it, Wau-ban-a-kees.  Their names of rivers in Ferrisburgh were, of Great Otter Creek, Pecunk-tuk, or the Crooked River; of Little Otter, Wonakake-tuk, [accents in original] or the River of Otters; and of Lewis Creek, Sungahnee-tuk, or the Fishing Place.*  Lake Champlain they called Pe-tou-bouque.+

* This was told to me by John Watso, or Wadhso, an intelligent Indian of St. Francois.  He also gave the names of some other rivers of the Champlain Valley.  Azzasataquake was their name for the Missisque River, signifying, The stream that turns back. [Missisque is a corruption of Masseepsque, The place of arrow flints; and applies only to the bay of that name.]  The Au Sable was known as Popoquamanee-tuk, The Cranberry River, and Saranac is corrupted from Senhalenac-tuk, The river of sumac-trees.  The dried leaves of the sumac were used by them for smoking, and hence the tree was of sufficient importance to give a name to the stream where it grew in abundance.

+ Watso’s definition of this word is, “The waters that lie between;” that is, between the countries of the Abenakees and Iroquois.  Others of the tribe with whom I have conversed interpreted this name otherwise, but cannot give an intelligible translation of it.