Mohawk People - Origins of Name

Origins of Name

In the Mohawk language, the people call themselves the autonym, Kanien'kehá:ka, "People of the Place of Flint" or "People of the Light". It has been spelled in a variety of ways as Europeans tried to put it into their phonetic systems (e.g. Canyeers.) Some sources say Europeans adopted an Algonquian-language exonym given to the Kahnawake by traditional competitors of the tribe: in their language Mohawk meant "eaters of flesh". Other historians believe Europeans such as the Dutch, who called them Maquasen, and English, who first called them Mohowawogs, were trying to render the phonetic sounds of the name they heard other tribes call them. The Dutch also referred to the Mohawk as Hawks, Egils, or Maquas. The French adapted these terms as Aigniers, Maquis, or called them by the generic Iroquois. The accepted traditional use of "People of the Flint" is associated with their origins in the Mohawk Valley, their homeland in New York. There, the Natives used flint deposits to tip their arrows and for other toolmaking.