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Aquinnah/ Aquinna
Does anyone have any information on this name? It can be traced back to both Massachussets and British Columbia's Indigenous groups who have used this name for watering holes and variations of it (Maquinna) for tribes themselves?
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It's Wampanoag and doesn't refer to 'watering holes' at all but land formation - it means 'land below the hill', the traditional designation of the western part of Martha's Vineyard (or Noepe to the Natives) by the Wampanoag Nation. The 'hill' refers to Mashaianauke or Boyer's Hill, where the Nation's Tribal Facility is sited today. The nearby 'watering holes' are the Menemsha and Squibnocket ponds, divided by land called Nashaquitsa which means 'at the little divided island'.Wampanoag is an Algonquin language of the N-dialect so the Massachuset, Nauset and Narragansett would speak similar tongues.Devon
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The word is also used in British Columbia and has a variety of uses here, and watering hole is one of them, but I don't anymore
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Please don't use different names Jacks/Ky/Jac - we can all see your authentication number and know it's you and it's against the site rules to adopt multiple personalities.I'll trust that you know what's used in British Columbia but will reassert that the meaning of the word in it's original tongue has nothing to do with water or 'watering holes' (quaint that). I've yet to encounter a community in North America that was careful about their poaching of Native words or assured of their 'correct' use. Most assume that whatever they themselves think it means is 'correct' enough.The word 'squaw' is widely used to refer to a Native American woman in North America and Europe. Squaw is actually an Iroquoian word meaning 'penis'. Just because some idiot misunderstands and spreads his misunderstanding far and wide doesn't make it right. When you don't know, fair enough but to continue in an ignorant vein when you know better is folly.Nevermind, among Natives 'white' has a variety of inofficial and largely incorrect meanings also....;o)Devon
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It looks like some feminine creative version of Aquino, Italian surname, referring to the city of Aquino, Italy, near by Napoles. As in St. Thomas of Aquino.
But perhaps it has got nothing to do with....
Magia.
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