[Onuntadass,] Onuntasasha, etc., "six miles west from Schoharie between the mountains of Schoharie and the hill called by the Indians Onuntadass" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers), describes a hill or mountain—Ononté—with adjective termination es or ese, meaning "long" or "high." Jonondese, "It is a high hill." The hill has not been located. The name could be applied to any long or high hill.
[Schoharie,] now so written as the name of a creek and of a county and town, would properly be written without the i. The stream came into notice particularly after 1693-4, when the Tortoise tribe retreated from Caughnawaga and located their principal town on the west side of the stream a short distance south of its junction with the Mohawk, taking with them their ancient title of "The First Mohawk Castle," and where its location became known by the name of Ti-onondar-aga and Ti-ononta-ogen; but later from the location on the creek about sixteen miles above its mouth of what was known in modern times as "The Third Mohawk Castle," more frequently called "The Schohare Castle," a mixed aggregation of Mohawks and Tuscaroras who had been converted by the Jesuit missionaries and persuaded to remove to Canada, but subsequently induced to return. "A few emigrants at Schohare," wrote Sir William Johnson in 1763. In the same district was also gathered a settlement of Mahicans and other Algonquian emigrants. From the elements which were gathered in both settlements came what were, long known as the Schohare Indians. The early record name of the creek, To-was-sho'hare, was rendered for me by Mr. J. B. N. Hewitt, of the Bureau of Ethnology, T-yoc-skoⁿ-hà-re, "An obstruction by drift wood." [FN] In Colonial History, "Skohere, the Bear," means that the chief so called was of the Bear tribe. He was otherwise known by the title, "He is the great wood-drift."
[FN] "Schoharie, according to Brant, is an Indian word signifying drift or flood-wood, the creek of that name running at the foot of a steep precipice for many miles, from which it collected great quantities of wood." (Spofford's Gazetteer.)
[Ti-onondar-aga] and Tiononta-ogen are forms of the name by which the "First Mohawk Castle" was located after the Tortoise tribe was driven by the French from Caughnawaga in 1693. The castle was located on the west side and near the mouth of Schohare Creek, as shown by a rough map in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 902, and also by a French Itinerary in 1757, in the same work, Vol. i, 526. [FN-1] For the protection of the settlement, the government erected, in 1710, what was known as Fort Hunter, by which name the place is still known. The settlement was ruled over for a number of years by "Little Abraham," brother of the Great King Hendrick of the "Upper Mohawk Castle," at Canajohare. Its occupants were especially classed as "Praying Maquas," and had a chapel and a bell and a priest of the Church of England. In the war of the Revolution they professed to be neutral but came to be regarded by the settlers as being composed of spies and informers. So it came about that General Clinton sent out, in 1779, a detachment, captured all the inmates, and seized their stock and property. [FN-2] There were only four houses—very good frame buildings—then standing, and on the solicitation of settlers, who had been made houseless in the Brant and Johnson raids, they were given to them. It was the last Mohawk castle to disappear from the valley proper.
Ti-onondar-ága and Te-ononte-ógen are related terms but are not precisely of the same meaning. The first has the locative particle ke, or acu, as Zeisberger wrote it, and the second, ógen, means "A space between," or "between two mountains," an intervale, or valley, a very proper name for Schohare Valley. It is a generic composition and was also employed in connection with the "Upper (Third) Mohawk Castle" (1635-'66).
[FN-1] The settlement included "Some thirty cabins of Mohawk Indians" in 1757. as stated in the French Itinerary referred to, Rev. Gideon Hawley described it, in 1753, as on the southwest side of the creek "Not far from the place where it discharges its waters into Mohawk River." The place is still known as "Fort Hunter," although the fort and the Indian settlement disappeared years ago.
[FN-2] A detachment of one hundred men, sent out for that purpose, surprised the castle on the 29th of October, 1779, making prisoners of "Every Indian inmate." The houseless settlers took possession of the four houses and of all the stock, grain and furniture of the tribe. The tribe made claim for restitution on the ground of neutrality, which the settlers denied. They had come to hate the very name of Mohawk.
[Kadarode,] of record in 1693 as the name of a tract of land "Lying upon Trinderogues (Schohare) creek, on both sides, made over to John Petersen Mabie by Roode, the Indian, in his life time, [FN] principal sachem, by and with the consent of the rest of the Praying Indian Castle in the Mohawk country" (Land Papers, 61), is further referred to in grant of permission to Mabie, in 1715, to purchase additional land "known as Kadarode," on the east side of the creek, and also lands "adjoining" his lands on the west side of the stream. (Ib. 118.) By the DeWitt map of survey of 1790, Mabie's entire purchase extended east from the mouth of Aurie's Creek to a point on the east side of Schohare Creek, a distance of about four miles, the territory covering the presumed site of the early Mohawk castle called by different writers from names which they had heard spoken, Onekagoncka, Caneray, Osseruenon, and Oneugioure, now the site of the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs." The Mohawk River, west of the long rapids, above and including the mouth of Schohare Creek, flows "in a broad, dark stream, with no apparent current," giving it the appearance of a lake—"a long stretch of still water in a river." The section was much favored by the Tortoise tribe, whose castle in 1635 and again in 1693-4 was seated upon it. The record name, Kadarode, has obviously lost some letters. Its locative suggests its derivation from Kanitare, "Lake," and -okte, "End, side, edge," etc. Van Curler wrote here, in 1635, Canowarode, the name of a village which he passed while walking on the ice which had frozen over the Mohawk; it was evidently on the side of the stream. Carenay or Kaneray, Van der Donck's name of the castle, may easily have been from Kanitare. The letters d and t are equivalent sounds in the Mohawk tongue. The aspirate k was frequently dropped by European scribes; it does not represent a radical element. The several record names which are met here is a point of interest to students.