indian place name change proposal

7/24/2019 Indian Place Name Change Proposal

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Aquidneck Indian Council, Inc.A Public Foundation Preserving the Past12 Curry AvenueNewport, RI 02840-1412

9 August, 2000Roger L. PayneExecutive Secretary,United States Board on Geographic NamesU.S. Geologic Survey523 National CenterReston, VA 20192-0523

Dear Mr. Payne:

Ascowequassunnmmis! ( Greetings!)

We, of the Aquidneck Indian Council of Newport, RI, , are a 501 (c) (3) non profitCorporation, located in the southern region of RI commonly known as Aquidneck Island. We are inreceipt of your letter, dated 2 Aug. 2000, respecting our opinion on a proposed geographic name

change. We understand the issue at hand as being whether or not to replace the name RhodeIsland on available maps and other documents with the new name Aquidneck Island. We furtherunderstand that although the original name of this region was, in modern spelling Aquidneck 1,that in Newport in March, 1644 , the General Court had ordered that henceforth the name of theysland commonly called Aquethneck be changed to eitherIsles of Rhodes, or RHODE ISLAND.

[Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, Vol I, 1636-1663. Printed in 1856, Providence, RI: A. Crawford Greene and Brother, State Printers., Page127]. It is interesting that a law was passed with an either/or proposition!

Of related interest to our Council is the issue argued by some parties that laws enacted inthe 17th century have the force of law in the 21st century.

In our opinion, the region commonly called Aquidneck Island should be the official name on any andall geographic references including maps and any other written material used to refer or describe the same

feature.There are several reasons supporting our opinion. First, every native of this region refers to

the feature Aquidneck Island to describe an island comprising the three towns of Portsmouth,

1 Aquidneck has had many spellings in the Colonial Records,inter aliaAcquedneck, Acquednecke,

Aquednecke, Acquidneck, Aquethneck, Aqueedneck, Aqethnec, Aquidnecke, AquidneckAcquidneck,Aquethnek, Quidy....


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Middletown and Newport, RI surrounded by Narragansett Bay on the West, and on the East bySakonnet Bay and the South by Rhode Island Sound.

We find one significant contemporary Federal reference labelling the feature AquidneckIsland. The geographic entity under discussion is labeled Aquidneck I. on the map in Fig. 1, page161, Bruce Trigger (ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15 (Northeast),. Washington:Smithsonian Institution, 1978. This map is really an historic one superimposed on a contemporary

geographic structure (with present-day State names, geographic features, etc.). This 20-volumeencyclopedic set on the Indians of North America is the standard reference work with respect toNative Americans (Indians), and a source the Aquidneck Indian Council relies on significantly forsuch matters as Place names. Also it is one of the few references accepted by the FederalGovernment (DOI) in matters relating tothe historic legitimacy of Indian Tribes. We find itcompelling that they refer to this entityin a modern context by the commonly accepted usageprevailing in our region.

As a practical point, whereas one might inform a person, I live in Newport, Rhode Islandon Aquidneck Island, one would never hear the same information articulated: I live in RhodeIslandon Rhode Island. No one we know of ever says we live on Rhode Island when referringto Aquidneck Island, as commonly used. We have never heard Rhode Island ever used except as aname for one of the 50 States of the United States of America.

We know that either name Rhode Island or Aquidneck Island but notIsle of Rhodes orRhode Island represents common knowledge among the American citizenry, as evidenced by thefollowing citation in theMerriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary:

Main Entry: Aquidneck IslandPronunciation: &-'kwid-"nekVariant(s): orRhode Island

Usage:geographical nameisland SE Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay; site of city of Newport

As further evidence of its common usage, a search conducted on the Internet revealed1,153 documents for the entry Aquidneck Island. They refer to the geographic feature under

discussion. Our Search Engine for this search was the comprehensive engine referred to asFastSearch (from Oxford University). A manual search of the local telephone directory reveals a largenumber of business establishments called Aquidneck. These data futher support the belief thatAquidneck Island is the commonly acepeted reference to the feature defined above.

As to geographic names given by the early Colonists for geographic features, it seems theyentertained certain notions which were to be constant forever hereafter, but did in fact change. Forexample, in naming the Governors Office (and by implication the name of the State), we note:

...wee have ordeyned, constituted, and declared that ... forever hereafter,[we are ] a bodie corporate and politique, in ffact and name, by the name ofThe Governor and Company of the English Collonie of Rhode Island andProvidence Plantations, in New-England, in America.

[The Charter of The Governor and Company of the English Colony ofRhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, in America,1663; reprinted from Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and ProvidencePlantations, in New England, Vol II, 1664-1677. Printed in 1857, Providence, RI:A. Crawford Greene and Brother, State Printers, p. 6]

Other references to the State name include the phrase in Narragansett Bay. One wonders howserious the Founding Fathers of the State, and Island of Aquidneck/Rhode Island of Rhode Island


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really were in passing certain name laws in the vein forever hereafter, only to be changed laterunder the like effect offorever hereafter. Obviously the European Colonists were responding to theBirth of the Nation in adopting the present-day State name, Rhode Island and ProvidencePlantations. It may be of interest to note that some historic maps of the 17th c. draw the entire stateas an island and call it Rhode Island (Foster Woodcut, 1677).

The notion that [all] laws passed in the 17th century are as applicable today as when

originally enacted does not seem correct de facto (e.g., The Bill of Rights and Federal Legislation).Moreover it seems wrong insofar as enforcement or compliance of said laws is concerned. Toexemplify this point, a careful reading of Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and ProvidencePlantations, in New England (Vol. I, et seq.) with respect to Indians would indicate that theundersigned as well as the approx. 8,000 other Indians in RI should legally be (a) imprisoned, or (b)fined, and possibly (c) killed for having committed such crimes as :

buying property, being out and on the public streets after 9 PM, lightingfires, building homes and communities, purchasing or consuming liquor,purchasing or using firearms or purchasing foods (such as corn) at marketprice, performing Indian dances or having Powwows

and other actions which were outlawed by the courts in the 17th c. within the boundaries of thepresent State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

As a final issue, we support very strongly the change proposal for historical and moralreasons. The expression Aquidneck is a phrase originating in the local Algonquian Indian dialect.It was apparently derived from the visual sense of perceiving a large mass of land that seemed to befloating on the water. Etymologically, one can trace a noun substantive aquidne (a floating mass) +ut (an affixed locative > at, of, on). Thus Aquidneck translates roughly as the floating-massat or, in Euro-American concepts,at the island, or the island. Aquidneck certainly bears norelation to the popularly held belief that it means The Isle of Peace.

We believe our Indian heritage is slowly being eroded day by day. Hundredsof names forgeographic features once bearing traces of the language of The First Americans have been replaced bynon-Indian names. When a valid, correctly translated geographic name, based on the local American

Indian languages is in use, we support its transition to official status.Such is our opinion on this drop/add proposal.We appreciate that the United States Board on Geographic Names, US Geologic Survey has

allowed the Aquidneck Indian Council to render its judgments and opinions on this importantmatter.

For the record, we list the Colonial references we have consulted for this project:

Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. I, 1636-1663. Printed in 1856, Providence, RI: A. Crawford Greene andBrother, State Printers.

Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. II, 1664-1677. Printed in 1857, Providence, RI: A. Crawford Greene andBrother, State Printers.

Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. III, 1678-1706. Printed in 1858, Providence, RI: A. Crawford Greene andBrother, State Printers.


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Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. IV, 1707-1740. Printed in 1859, Providence, RI: Knowles, Anthony & Co.,State Printers.

Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. V, 1741-1756. Printed in 1860, Providence, RI: Knowles, Anthony & Co.,

State Printers.Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England,Vol. VI, 1757-1769. Printed in 1861, Providence, RI: Knowles, Anthony & Co.,State Printers.

Respectfully yours,

Moondancer (Francis J. OBrien, Jr., Ph. D.) Strong Woman (JulianeJennings)President Vice President

cc: Darrell Waldron, RI Indian Council

Moondancer(Dr. Frank O'Brien) is of Abenaki descent. He is President of the Aquidneck Indian Council, andserves as Council Secretary, Rhode Island Indian Council. Dr. Frank Moondancer OBrien holds a Ph.D. from

Columbia University, in New York City. He is listed in Whos Who in Science and Engineering, and has been

selected for 2000 Scientists of the 20th Century.

Strong Womanis a Wampanoag-Pequot artist and vice-president of the Council. She has authored Succotash.

Strong Woman is listed in Who's Who in America.

Together, they have co-authored

Understanding Algonquian Indian Words (New England)

A Massachusett Language Book, Vol. I. Wampanaoag Cultural History: Voices from Past and Present Indian Grammar Dictionary for N-dialect: A Study of A Key into the Language of America, by Roger

William, 1643.

and the soon-to-be released book:

An Introduction to the Narragansett Language. Their work has been supported by The RI Committee for

the Humanities/National Endowment for the Humanities. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts,

Rhode Island Foundation, Expansion Arts and others.

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