Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Wickaposset (Fishers Island)

A small eastern-island place name whose variants preserve older coastal geography beyond the main body of Long Island. Wickaposset is a Fisher's Island place-name, with Wecopesuck and Wicapeset as recorded variants. The name is associated with the eastern end of the island in Southold town. The name is connected with a point of land and with J. Hammond Trumbull's description of a small rocky island at the east end of Fishers Island. The exact historic point or rock requires site-level review. The interpretation is "little thing at the end," analyzed through Algonquian terms meaning "at the end" and "a small thing." Wickaposset is also listed as a see-reference to Wickapogue, but the Fisher's Island location is distinct from the Southampton Meacox Bay placename. Why Place Names Matter “Many Native American place names have suffered mutilation at the hands of their writers, making...