Podunk people

The Podunk were an indigenous people who spoke an Algonquian language and lived primarily in what is now known as Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. English colonists adopted use of a Nipmuc dialect word for the territory of this people.

Podunk is of Algonquian origin, meaning "where you sink in mire", or a boggy place, in the Nipmuc dialect. The Podunk people called their homeplace Nowashe, "between rivers." This people lived in territory near the mouth of the Park River at its confluence with the Connecticut River. The Dutch called these waterways the Little River and Great River, respectively. The Dutch indicated their territory on an early 17th-century map with the term Nowass, likely a transliteration of the Algonquian word.

Like other Woodland peoples, the Podunk built their summer lodges near the river. They fished for shad and salmon, and lampreys in their season. The men hunted deer and bear, as well as small game. The women cultivated and processed varieties of maize and beans, as well as drying the meats and preparing skins. They used the furs of otter, mink, and beaver for clothing, and used other hides to cover their wigwams. In winter they moved to inland camp sites. As part of their winter diet, they ate dried venison and bear meat. Numerous of their tools and artifacts, and other archeological evidence, has been found along the rivers and in the highlands.

The Podunk tribe had three bands: the Namferoke (in Podunk, "fishing place"), who lived near the present-day village of Warehouse Point; the Hockanum (Podunk, "a hook", or "hook shaped"), led by Tantonimo, who lived near what developed as the village known as Hockanum; and the Scanticook (Nipmuc, "at the river fork"), who lived on the north bank of the Scantic River near the section called Weymouth. Their leader was called Foxen (or Poxen). Foxen/Poxen witnessed land deeds in 1640. He became the great councilor of the Mohegan ("wolf people"), and his name appears repeatedly in early records.

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