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Correspondence from Charles E. Banks to Fannie Hardy Eckstorm ca. 1915-1930, Part 5

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�Nov. 30, 1930
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Dear Mrs. Eckstorm
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Sunday being Injun day with me, I proceed accordingly.  I have a hill - in York.  It is one of the few places in the town that still bears the remnants of a good Abnaki word.  The modernized version of it - or rather the clipped version of it for two centuries - is Tonnemy Hill - various spellings.  The lazy men called it that, but fortunately some meticulous person saved what seems to be the whole of it - [?] which strikes me as a decent thing to do.  It rises 220 ft above sea level.  Near by it are those fair sized ponds, one of which had the name of tonnemy Pond - in various spellings - not called Scituak Pond from the Scituak man men who settled in York 1640 - about a half dozen of them.  So far as I can see the word Wunnam|aton (over) eton| amy (e over the y)  has nothing with to [?] a pond - and does have the [?] tense for a hill.
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I suppose the prefix Wunnam (underscored) or Wannam (underscored) gives the suggestion of Wunne (underscored) signifying beautiful, good, though I fail to see why a hill should be either good or beautiful to [?] in the abstract sense.  Roger Williams gives Wunnan (underscored) as meaning the use of red paint by the natives, but I am not aware that much materials was indigenous or near that hill.  I do not know what they used for decorating themselves-possibly some sort of ferruginous clay or an iron oxide.
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It is rather singular that there are so few Indian place names in York.  Neddick, Aguameuter, [?] comprises them all.  The real mountains, [?] did not leave the name for us to wangle its remains, and some names of never were tagged with the name of a rock (Neddick)

Revision as of Jul 10, 2018, 3:26:22 PM

�Nov. 30, 1930 Dear Mrs. Eckstorm

Sunday being Injun day with me, I proceed accordingly. I have a hill - in York. It is one of the few places in the town that still bears the remnants of a good Abnaki word. The modernized version of it - or rather the clipped version of it for two centuries - is Tonnemy Hill - various spellings. The lazy men called it that, but fortunately some meticulous person saved what seems to be the whole of it - [?] which strikes me as a decent thing to do. It rises 220 ft above sea level. Near by it are those fair sized ponds, one of which had the name of tonnemy Pond - in various spellings - not called Scituak Pond from the Scituak man men who settled in York 1640 - about a half dozen of them. So far as I can see the word Wunnam|aton (over) eton| amy (e over the y) has nothing with to [?] a pond - and does have the [?] tense for a hill. I suppose the prefix Wunnam (underscored) or Wannam (underscored) gives the suggestion of Wunne (underscored) signifying beautiful, good, though I fail to see why a hill should be either good or beautiful to [?] in the abstract sense. Roger Williams gives Wunnan (underscored) as meaning the use of red paint by the natives, but I am not aware that much materials was indigenous or near that hill. I do not know what they used for decorating themselves-possibly some sort of ferruginous clay or an iron oxide. It is rather singular that there are so few Indian place names in York. Neddick, Aguameuter, [?] comprises them all. The real mountains, [?] did not leave the name for us to wangle its remains, and some names of never were tagged with the name of a rock (Neddick)