Jan 21 2009
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg and the Nipmuc Indians
In central Massachusetts, on the southern end of Worcester County, east of the town of Webster, lies Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
A couple of Internet sources explain that the lake’s name is Nipmuc (Algonquian) for “You fish on your side; I fish on my side; nobody fishes in the middle.” I suspect that the Native American name of the lake stems from fishing disputes among local Nipmuc Indian villages and how they resolved border and fishing disputes. (It’s a shame politicians these days can’t come up with such a logical solution. We stand to learn a lot from our Native American cultures.)
Today, the lake is commonly known as Lake Webster, but honestly, that’s no fun at all. If you go to the lake, there’s a large sign with the lake’s Nipmuc name on it and it claims to be the home of the Nipmuc Indians, although the tribe covered a large area in the New England region.
Some info about the Nipmuc Indians
“Nipmuc Indians are the original people of central New England, and are among the “Eastern Woodlands” or Algonquian Indians of the Eastern United States. Before the arrival of European settlers in the 1600s, the Nipmuc (or “Fresh Water People”) lived in numerous band encampments, or ‘villages’, near bodies of fresh water in a territory (called ‘Nipnet’) which extended from the present day Vermont and New Hampshire borders, through Worcester County in Massachusetts, into northern Rhode Island, and into northeastern Connecticut as far south as Plainfield” – Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut
Who can say that lake’s name five times really fast?
No responses yet
