Native American Names - Glastonbury CT Area

No matter where you may venture to in the U.S. -- it seems you can find tribute/evidence of native American origins if you know where to look...

• Wangunk (“where the river bends”)
• Nayaug  ("noisy waters")
• Naubuc (flat plains to the north”)
• Neipsic ("water near the hill") or Nipsic

The Native Americans of the present-day Glastonbury/Portland area were members of Algonkian-speaking tribes. They lived in clans of approximately 100 individuals and each group was ruled by a sachem or chief. Clans took names from features of the land where they were centered. Naubucs lived in the plains to the east, the flat area at the north end of town. Nayaugs lived a bit further south near the Noisy Water at the mouth of Roaring Brook (note: they were also known as the Red Hill Indians). Wangonks lived at the bend in the river behind today’s Town Hall, where the Connecticut River turned in the 1600s. The Neipsic springs first attracted Native Americans who came for the water's mystical healing powers. Today, the water still bubbles up from the hillsides in Glastonbury's J.B. Williams Park found on Neipsic Road.

The tribes were peaceful and farmed the land. In the summer, clans lived along the river in longhouses. In winter, they moved to the hills and lived in south- or west-facing caves. 

You can find the following names on the map above as well

• Knogscut ("place of wild goose') - Knogscut Mountain >
• Minnechaug ("berrylnd") - Even the golf course, when heading to Manchester, has a a Native American name!

Other Places Nearby

• Meshomasic (“the great snake” or “land of many snakes”) - State Park >
• Shenipsit (“at the great pool”) refers to the Shenipsit Lake, which the Shenipsit trail passes by

Further Info 

• Connecticut Native American Trail Names
• History of Glastonbury
• Wangunks

The Connecticut River

Did you know?

• The Connecticut River is named after the Pequot word “quinetucket,” meaning long tidal river. The European corruption of that begat “Connecticut.”
• The Connecticut River is tidal and navigable as far inland as Hartford, CT sixty miles from the Sound. Large oil barges with shallow drafts regularly make the trip upstream to Hartford.
• 410 miles long, the Connecticut River is New England’s longest river running through four states: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
• 70% of all the fresh water entering Long Island Sound comes from the Connecticut River.

The Meandering River through the Glastonbury "Reach"

The Floodplain

The large area south of Hartford, Connecticut along the Connecticut River is known as the Great Meadows. It's a large inland wetland and a significant regional resource. The Connecticut River meanders through the Meadows and has shifted considerably over time. The fertile floodplain soils of the Meadows are an important agricultural resource and farmland and farms are abundant throughout the area.

Yellow areas are farmland
Source

Glastonbury Reach

The floodplain area is known geographically as the "Glastonbury Reach". Over time, this stretch of the river has shifted its course. One dramatic example occurred in occurred in 1692 when a flood altered the course of the river in Wethersfield. The flood shifted the course of the rover to the east and swept away all but one warehouse. 

Ancient Glacial Lake Hitchcock

Lake Hitchcock was a glacial lake that formed approximately 15,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene epoch. After the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated, glacial ice melt accumulated at the terminal moraine and blocked up the Connecticut River, creating the long, narrow lake. It stretched from present-day Rocky Hill, Connecticut to St. Johnsbury, Vermont: about 200 miles! 

Part of the ancient sediment dam that contained Lake Hitchcock is still visible today as a sand pit at Dividend Pond Trails and Archaeological District in Rocky Hill. Sands dunes built up along the shore of the lake can also be seen today at Matianuck Sand Dunes Natural Area Preserve in Windsor.

Source

Part of the ancient sediment dam that contained Lake Hitchcock is still visible today as a sand pit at Dividend Pond Trails and Archaeological District in Rocky Hill:

Huh  -- What's the deal re this square-shaped lake?

Crow Point Cove's shape is man-made. The cove was excavated for highway construction of the interstate 91 embankment nearby.

Further Info / Source Info

• CT River Watershed Facts (Connecticut River Conservancy)
• The Great Meadows of the Connecticut River (PDF)
• Geomorphology of the Connecticut River - Glastonbury Reach
• Glacial Lake Hitchcock (Wikipedia)
• Getting to Know Glacial Lake Hitchcock (CT Science Center)
• Glacial Lake Hitchcock Sediment Dam
• Sedimentation in a proglacial lake: Glacial Lake Hitchcock

Rupert's Land

What/Where was it?

Rupert’s Land was a vast territory of northern wilderness. It represented a third of what is now Canada. From 1670 to 1870, it was the exclusive commercial domain of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the primary trapping grounds of the fur trade. The territory was named after Prince Rupert, the HBC’s first governor.

By 1870, the Government of Canada acquired Rupert’s Land from the HBC for $1.5-million. It is the largest real estate transaction (by land area) in the country’s history. The purchase of Rupert’s Land transformed Canada geographically. It changed from a modest country in the northeast of the continent into an expansive one that reached across North America. Rupert’s Land was eventually divided among Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

Indigenous People, Métis and Missionaries

The charter signed by King Charles II gave the HBC complete control of the territory. Almost no thought was given to the sovereignty of the many Indigenous peoples that had lived there for centuries. The HBC established forts and trading routes through much of the territory. The Cree, Assiniboine and other groups supplied the Company with furs, or acted as middlemen for other Indigenous fur suppliers. The Indigenous groups either took part in the growing trading economy or were directly employed by the HBC. The fur trade changed the Indigenous economy. Rather than hunting and trapping for subsistence, people now trapped in exchange.

Unidentified Métis Family

(photo by Robert Bell, courtesy of Library and Archives Canada)

In this family portrait above, we see the blending of two cultures. The father wears a European suit adorned with a pocket watch. The mother, who might be Métis¹, holds their infant in a cradle board, traditionally used by First Nations peoples. The shawls, worn by several of the women and girls, reflect Métis culture.

The above sourced from this excellent article:

Rupert's Land (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

1 - Métis 

The Métis are Indigenous peoples in Canada and parts of the United States who are unique in being of mixed Indigenous and European (primarily French) ancestry. In Canada, they are considered a distinct culture, and are one of three groups of Canadian Indigenous peoples referenced in the Constitution. Métis (Wikipedia)

The World's Most Spoken Languages

The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World

Around the world, there are more than 7,000 regularly spoken vernaculars, this infographic shows off the top 100 most common languages in a very nice linguistic infographic. World languages list varied origins, with some branching off from the same ancient roots and some having a history all their own. 

The myriad of languages have been illustrated with its language origin tree, so you can easily trace their roots. Beautiful and ever-evolving, like a forest, the sheer variety of common languages spoken around the globe has been charted here in one world language map. Check out the top 100 most popular languages and their origin.

Check out Infographic >

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The 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World

Almost half of the world’s population claims one of only 10 languages as their mother tongue

Please note:

What constitutes a language or a dialect is hotly contested stuff. More troubling is the fact that what we refer to simply as “Chinese” is actually a whole family of languages conveniently lumped into a single category. “Hindi” is also used as a catchall term to cover numerous dialects and sub-dialects.

Top 10 Languages By Number Of Native Speakers:

1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers

2. Spanish — 460 Million Native Speakers

3. English — 379 Million Native Speakers

4. Hindi — 341 Million Native Speakers

5. Arabic — 315 Million Native Speakers

6. Bengali — 228 Million Native Speakers

7. Portuguese — 220 Million Native Speakers

8. Russian — 153 Million Native Speakers

9. Japanese — 128 Million Native Speakers

10. Lahnda (Western Punjabi) — 118 Million Native Speakers

Visit Site >

Six Places To Avoid

Six places most folks may want to avoid  :-). "Laugh of the week'"
Click on Google Map Link - these are for real!

1 - Google Map >

2 - Google Map >

3- Google Map >

4 - Google Map >

5- Google Map >

6 - Google Map >

Two fabulous interactive data visualizations

A couple of really well done interactive data visualizations...

1 - Galaxy of Covers

How can music and a love of interplanetary ideas mix together to make a data visualization? With this lovely interactive example of a data analysis about famous song covers. Each song is a planet and its covers are satellites orbiting around it. Each song planet can be clicked on to visualize its own specific data. 

Songs...

• Walk On By
• All Along The Watchtower
• Hallelujah
• With A Little Help From My Friends
• etc.

Scroll down and interact - amazing

Go to Interactive Visual >

2- 200 Years of Immigration to the U.S

This is beautiful! Hover over any color at any point, and see the exact number of immigrants who became residents from that country in a specific decade. 

Go to Interactive Visual >

Cumania

Who were the Cumans?

The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of the Eurasian Steppe who exerted an enduring influence on the medieval Balkans. They were numerous, culturally sophisticated, and militarily powerful.

Cumania

The Cumans entered the grassland of Eastern Europe in the 11th century, from where they continued to assault the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and Rus. It should be noted that Cumania was neither a state nor an empire, but different groups under independent rulers, or khans, who acted on their own initiative, meddling in the political life of the surrounding states.

Did you Know?

The Polovtsian Dances 
The Russian word "Polovtsy" was the name given to the Kipchaks and Cumans by the Rus people. A very famous classical music piece is called the Polovtsian Dances from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor.  His opera tells the story of the heroic antics of a 12th-century Russian prince Igor and his campaigns against invading nomadic Polovtsy tribes. The Polovtsian Dances offer an exhilarating climax to the opera’s second act, as Prince Igor and his son Vladimir are taken prisoner by Polovtsian leader Khan Konchak, who entertains them lavishly and calls on his slaves to perform the thrilling dances. 

Further Info

• Cumans (Wikipedia)
• Cumania (very informative article)