from "Sarah Collins," (1749). On the prehistory of Alegwenink. The secret meaning of a name.
"What do you call this country where we will live?"
"Alegwenink. That means 'They Came There from Far Away'. Which is just what it is."
"Who came there from far away?"
"We did. Everybody who's there did. The Lenape, the Shawnee, and the Seneca and Menkwe. "
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"So there were no people here before these people came?"
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"Oh yes, there were people here, ever since… forever.
We don't know who The People of Olden Times were, we just find their buildings and things. Like Maxkahsenink, the Red Stone place. Then giant people called the Talligewi lived here until Lenape ancestors fought them, with the help of the Menkwe, and we got rid of them. Our ancestors stayed here until we moved down to the best lands by Lenapei Sipu. The Cherokee heard our stories and they say they're the Talligewi people. But I don't think they really are them. They just have a name that sounds like Talligewi. Then after that the Erie people lived here until my great-grandfather's time. But then the Five Nations went there and said 'You people get out of here. We want this land for our hunting grounds, for hunting beaver.' Because the French and English pay a lot for beaver pelts, and the Iroquois kept trying to control that business. And that meant they had to control the hunting grounds. The Erie said no and fought back. Then the Iroquois made war and finished them all off. They emptied out Alegwenink. Then after that, the Shawnee were here before we came back up here. Lenni Lenape today are the last people to move to Alegwenink… even though we were the eldest, back east."
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***
"I came up the Patowmack at first."
{C} {C}
"Ah! Oh yes. Hey, I bet you didn't know the secret meaning of Patowmack. Did you?"
"No. Please tell me."
"The Shawnee told everyone that it means 'they bring stuff' in their language. That was just to disguise it from the white men. Actually, in Lenape, putamak means 'they escape'. We called it that because the Shawnee were using it to escape west across the mountains. You took the Putamak trail that was made by Shawnee. It leads to the beginning of Nemacolin's Trail, where you met us. The Shawnee over there said to us 'Don't call it that, you'll give it away. We'll call it Petawomek, "they bring stuff," instead'."