Mahican

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of a Native American people originally inhabiting the Hudson River Valley and surrounding regions who played a significant role in early American history
2. Referring to the Indigenous group known for their settlement along the middle Hudson River and participation in colonial-era alliances and conflicts
3. Denoting the North American tribe historically located in present-day New York and Vermont, recognized for their distinctive culture and interaction with European settlers

Etymology: Most English readers know this name from James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel "The Last of the Mohicans," but Cooper was spelling a name that already existed, and he attached it to the wrong people. The Hudson River people's name appears in seventeenth-century Dutch colonial records in forms such as "Mahicander." Cooper's "Mohicans" came from the closely related name of the Mohegans of eastern Connecticut, so his novel blended two distinct peoples into one. The name is generally linked to an Algonquian word for "wolf," though the exact derivation is uncertain. A phrase often attributed to the people, roughly "people of the waters that never stand still," is a later interpretation rather than a firmly documented translation.

Synonyms: Mohican