Anybody here into New England Native American history?

Got a copy of an old file from the very early 20th century of a body of water I grew up near in Massachusetts. In the old file is the original Native American name before the white settlers renamed it, and then was subsequently renamed by the U.S. military when it became military property. Was just curious what the NA name meant, but no responses yet from a local Native American and linguist. I've contacted two local museums with a reply from one but no idea what it means.

Was thinking someone here in New England is into Native American history and might know a historian I can contact. It seems a lot of taxidermists are into this kind of stuff.

Yeah I know this isn't specifically taxidermy but I no longer post in Current Events.

Btw the Native American name of the lake that is now protected and undeveloped except for a swimming beach is Shabokin. Was changed to Hell Pond by the White settlers probably due to it depth in relation to surface area, and then to the trite Mirror Lake by the military.

Here's what it looked like in 1911 and isn't much different today.

 

Thanks Bill.

 

Thanks Brian. I have subsequently found the same in a publication about Harvard Mass (the town) that is just east of there. Is that where you got the info? The curator of the Fort Devens Military Museum sent me a couple of pages. Next time I'm out there I'm going to have to make a visit and take pictures for my dad that was in 10th Special Forces there, which is part of the museum.

I was a military dependent there from 1968 to 1971 and the pond was just a walk through the woods, and I spent a lot of time there. Learned a lot about fishing there. Always felt the lake was special but not sure why. Even saw ghosts as it was getting dark, but I'm sure that was my imagination. We were also stationed at a Kasern in Germany that was used in WWII by the Gestapo and I saw ghosts there too. LOL

What a lot of people don't know is the post has a very macabre history too. It was ground zero in the U.S. for the Spanish Flu Epidemic plague that killed 50 million people all over the world. A lot of guys also were inducted into the military there in both WWI and II never to come back. And it housed German POW's.

 

You're right Bill. Similarly my twin is a railroad historian and author and when it comes to history he is very very careful not to use something in his books until he can verify it and has researched it to death. Even among academics many mistakes are made and we seem to constantly be revising pre European settler history. I was blown away to learn recently that there were probably millions of Native Americans on the South American and North American continents that waxed and waned in numbers. Some seemed to disappear overnight.


Don't know if it's true but was told that in at least one NA village a whiteman had to bath first before showing up to trade as the NA's didn't care much for the stench. If you think about it, it makes sense. How close could a NA get to wild game smelling to high heaven? And the whiteman had weapons that could reach out much farther (at least at first.)

 

Perhaps but from what I've read I'd have to have my sense of smell deactivated if I was a time traveler into the past in European and colonial days, as bathing only a few times a year was not unheard of with the early europeans at least. They just dumped things on to cover the smell. And carried special bouquets with them at public events to mask body odor, which is how the wedding tradition started.The early Queen Elizabeth had 1 inch of make up on her face when she died. Apparently she just keep adding it and never washed it off.

Anybody here ever smell a human being that has not bathed in a long time? Used to work at grocery story where a mentally ill guy came in once in a while. Oh my God the stench was horrible! The closest thing I can compare it to is the rotting flesh of a road kill.

 

Now JL you need to do your homework. Her family roots are originally from Oklahoma. And most Okies will tell you that Native American ancestry is very common there.

 

Makes sense to me.

Thanks Joey.