[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] in Pelham Bay Park. Wampage’s connections, if any, with John Wampus, a Nipmuck émigré from Massachusetts who claimed land in modern-day Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 1671, currently are unclear. Town officials had the sachem, who signed the abovementioned 1696 deed, in mind when they chose the name Wampus to adorn their community. The particular spelling they selected, however, also evokes the image of the Wampus Cat, an infernal feline that still stalks imaginary woods in Cherokee and Appalachian Mountain folktales and adorns places as far afield as Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, and Texas (see in Part 3) whose names have nothing to do with the sachem from Westchester. pinger sounds a great deal like a Munsee word, *waapingw, “white face, i.e., opossum.” This conforms with current opinion casting doubt on such earlier etymologies as “easterner” and “dawnlander.” The name’s similarity to the London dockyard community of Wapping (Saxon for “Wæppa’s people”) doubtless eased its transition onto colonial maps. This fact also probably accounts for Wapping’s presence as a place name in parts of states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia where Wappingers never lived (see Part 3). Wappinger in New York currently is the name of the 36-milelong creek that courses through the heart of Dutchess County, its East and Little Branch tributaries, as well as a lake, a town, the Village of Wappingers Falls, and a number of other places. People identified as Wappinger Indians appeared early and often in records documenting intercultural relations along the lower Hudson River’s Great Valley during the colonial era. A reference to Wappings living on the North River (today’s Hudson) halfway between forts Orange and Amsterdam made in 1643 during Governor Kieft’s War represents the earliest known appearance of the name. Although a 1653 reference (in Grumet 1994) mentioning the place name Opingona at today’s Ramapo Pass (see above) is the first occurrence of the name Oping on the New York–New Jersey frontier, Indians variously calling themselves Wapings, Opings, and Pomptons (see in New Jersey North in Part 1 below) only began appearing in documents at that locale some 25 years later. While the names Wappinger and Waping occur in the Great Valley on both sides of the Hudson River, no source dating to colonial times mentions a Wappinger confederacy dominated by a Wappinger chieftaincy as suggested by Ruttenber (1872:77-85) and Mooney (in Hodge 19071910 1:913). The name continued to adorn Wappinger Creek after the Indians known by that name left the area following the failure of Daniel Nimham (see above) to regain his people’s title to their land in 1765. Today’s Village of Wappingers Falls was known as Wappingers Creek from late colonial times to the early federal period. The locale was briefly known as Channingville from 1847 to 1849, when a separate Wappingers Falls post office was opened nearby (Kaiser 1965). Channingville was subsequently absorbed into Wappingers Falls when the community incorporated as a village in 1871. WARACKAMACK (Dutchess County). Golden (2009:11-12) thinks that the name Wohnockkanmeekkuk, spelled in a manner suggesting Mahican origins and first mentioned in a “Muhheckaunuck or River Indian” petition written on June 29, 1754, by members of the mixed Munsee–Mahican community living at the locale (New York Colonial Manuscripts, Indorsed Land Papers 15:283284), was their name for present-day Warackamack Lake just outside of the Village of Red Hook. The more Delaware-like present-day form of the spelling adopted by the builder of the dam that flooded a stretch of marshlands known as Fever Cot or Pine Swamp suggests that he drew the name from Ruttenber’s (1906a:46) entries for Waraughkameck and Waraukameck in his place name book. WAPETUCK (Westchester County). Whritenour thinks that Wapetuck sounds much like a Munsee word, *waapihtukw, “white river.” Today, Wapetuck is the name of a municipal school board day camp operated by the Village of Scarsdale. Wapetuck was originally the name of one of the Indians who signed four deeds to land in the area between 1701 and 1702 (in Robert Bolton 1881 1:475- WASSAIC (Dutchess County). Whritenour thinks that Wassaic 476; 2:211-212; New York State Library, Indorsed Land Papers sounds like a Munsee word, *wshayeek, “wampum string.” Wassaic 3:33). Creek currently is the name of a six-mile-long stream that rises above the hamlet of Amenia. From there, the stream flows south to WAPPINGER (Dutchess County). Whritenour thinks that Wap- its junction with Webatuck Creek (see below) to form the Tenmile 32 Beyond Manhattan, Robert S. Grumet River a mile or so above Dover Plains. The name first appeared as Wesaick Brook in the February 1704, survey of land located in what was called the Oblong Tract between Connecticut and New York conveyed by the Indians in a deed dated November 5, 1703 (O’Callaghan 1864:74-75). Colonists often interchangeably used the as the Wassaic Creek and the 488-acre Wassaic Multiple Use Area located on the