[7] Ote-sa-ga was probably derived, by transposition very common in like case, from the first map name of Ostega (Ostaga), 1770-1775. Dr. Beauchamp sought to derive this from "otsta," a word for which Schoolcraft was his authority, and which was supposed to be Oneida for "rock," the Mohawk form "otsteara." But Schoolcraft, as Beauchamp himself elsewhere shows (Indian Names, p. 6), sometimes took liberties with original Indian forms of words. The Mohawk word for "rock" is "ostenra"; the Oneida would be "ostela." The first with the locative terminal "ga," gives "ostenraga"; the second, "ostelaga." Both are far removed from "Ostaga." Ostaga is more naturally derived from the Mohawk "otsata," or "osata," both which forms occur in Bruyas. Otsataga, by elision, readily becomes Otstaga, and again Ostaga. The change is even simpler with Osataga. The meaning of Ostaga, thus explained, would be "place of cloud," by extension "place of storm"—in contrast, perhaps, with the little lakes, which were waiontha, "calm." (Bruyas, 64).—Willard E. Yager.
[8] League of the Iroquois, Lewis H. Morgan, Lloyd's Ed., Vol. I, p. 93.
[9] Yager.
[10] The Old New York Frontier, Francis W. Halsey, 16. League of the Iroquois, II. 227.
[11] League of the Iroquois, I. 87.
[12] do., I. 249-251.
[13] The Old New York Frontier, 150.
[14] The Old New York Frontier, 75, 160.
[15] Address at the Cooperstown Centennial.