the kids are, all right?

Lake Minnewaska, Mohonk Preserve, NY

The name "Moggonck" appeared in early boundary records referring to the "high hill”… The word Moggonck was possibly derived from the Lenape maxkwung, "place of bears", or from the Munsee maxkawenge, "hill of bears". Another possibility comes from the related Mohican language, in which Magunk is derived from Magki, "great", and Unk, "a standing tree". —Wikipedia

Still catching up from a few weeks back. —G

The names of the places and lakes are still theirs.

All of these things that were better before white people got here, my friend sighs angrily as we stop at a stunning view across a valley. (Her father is a refugee from El Salvador.)

We wander, stripping fruit from the wineberry and high mountain blueberry bushes. It is a good season, abundant much later than the parks in the city. What did this specific place—these plants, the perfect, cool water in this lake—mean to the people who were here before we stole it? I wonder. How were these different from other places these people went? How far away did they go?