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Indian Names of Places
in Plymouth, Middleborough, Lakeville and Carver Plymouth County
Massachusetts
Coatuis, Cotuit, Coituate, Satuite.
The present name of a district in Plymouth? The Indian name of Half Way
Pond." (M. H. S., s. 2, v. 3, p. 175.) In the southern central part of
Plymouth. Possibly a corruption of Kootucket--Pine Tree River, Koo
or Koowa--Pine -Tuck-river or stream with the locative suffix et
or it and would refer to some well known place on the river. It may
have been one of the aboriginal names of the Agawam River itself which rises
in that pond. The present name of the river, without doubt, was taken from
the Indian village Agawam. It is said that the last male Indian, of unmixed
blood, in Plymouth died at Coatuit or Half Way Pond, in his wigwam, in 1801.
Half Way Pond is so called being half way on the road from Plymouth to
Sandwich. Kodtuhkoet would probably mean "at the top of a hill."
Coatuit was a well known name among the Barnstable
County Indians and probably also among the Plymouth Indians, as one of their
very old traditions tells of the formation of Coatuit River in Barnstable.
"The Trout King wishing to furnish the Indians with a stream of fresh water
forced his way into the land at Poponesset Bay but finding the effort too
great for his strength he expired, when another fish took up the work where
he left it and completed the river to Sanctait Pond. The mounds made by
these two trout, and supposed to be their graves, can be seen to-day."
(1800.) Coatuit Town, Coatuit River, Harbor, Point and Highland are all
present names in Barnstable.
Cantaughcantiest, Caughtaughcanteist, 1638,
Caughtacanteist, 1641 (Ply. Col. Rec.)
"The aboriginal name of the Strawberry Hill of the
first planters." Was also called in early times "Mill Hill," afterwards
Watson's Hill, which name it now retains.
Tradition asserts that the meaning of the name is
"Planted fields." On this hill Massasoit camped in April, 1621, when he
first visited the Pilgrims and greeting them through the Sachem Samoset and
Tisquantum made the famous treaty which lasted as long as he lived. Edward
Winslow remained as a hostage on this hill while the conference was being
held.
The Treaty of Cantaugticanteist or
Caughtaughcanta, as it should be called, was one of the most important
events in our early Colonial history and with all its picturesque
surroundings should take its place in song and story with the ballads of
Scotland and of France and with the Celtic and Saxon national
tales of Great Britain.
The Sachem Samoset was the first Indian with whom the
pilgrims held communication and his words of greeting, when. he met them a
few weeks before the treaty, "Welcome, Englishmen," are historical. After
much study of this word I think possibly this name was not applied
originally, by the Indians, to the hill but only after the treaty. It must
be borne in mind that this was the first time the Pilgrims had met any
number of Indians (April 1621) and knew very little of their language.
Massasoit was encamped on this hill and insisted that the Englishmen should
send some one to meet him. A word which the Indians might naturally have
repeated several times, considering all the circumstances, and which might
easily be considered by the Pilgrims to refer to the hill itself, would be
Ke kuttokaunta which means "Let us parley" or "talk." The first
mention I find of this name in the Plymouth Colony Records is in 1638, where
it is spelled Caugh taugh cant teist. Comparing this with Ke kut
tok kun ta it is easily conceived that the first syllable of the
original Indian word, Ke, could be lost or dropped, and the final
syllable is probably a corruption, as I know of no Massachusetts Indian
names with the termination teist. Caughtaughcanieist or
Kekuttokunta, Conference Hill is certainly an appropriate name.
Compare Caugh-taugh-cant-teist
(Ke)
Kut- to-kunt- ta
I offer the above only as a suggestion.
Catawmet.
The name of a district of Plymouth. (See
Kitteaumut,)
Also a name used near Falmouth.
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