Buffloe.com

Native American called Buffalo

According to the Buffalo Historical Museum this is one of the most probable of the Name Origin theories. 

 

N.T. Strong sent a letter to the Buffalo Historical Society sharing views of the origin of the name Buffalo.  On page 40, volume 1,

 

     From whence then came the name of Buffalo? The Indian account is substantially this: that many years ago, De-gi-yah-goh (in English, Buffalo), a Seneca Indian of the wolf clan, built a bark cabin on the bank of the Buffalo creek, and lived there many years until his death. His occupation was that of a fisherman. A fisherman, in ancient times, with the Senecas, was an important person from the fact that the Indians, in the fishing season, almost wholly subsisted on fish, and De-gi-yah-goh was the chief fisherman of the Nation. The theory then is, that when the white pioneers came to that creek, they doubtless entered into the bark cabin of De-gi-yah-goh, and learned from him his name; — and the pioneers translated and gave the name to " Buffalo creek," after the Seneca fisherman whose bark cabin stood upon its banks.

 

This story appears in the Dobbins papers as well, Dobbins stopping at a local tavern owned by an early settler Winney in 1795, on page 300, it reads,

 

In conversation with Winney, I inquired if there were many Buffalo around there. He said there were not; I then inquired about the origin of the name. He answered that it took its name from an old Indian, who had lived there for a long time, named by the Indians, 'Tehoseroron' or 'De-o-se-o wa' or something like that-- which signifies buffalo in English. He assigned the reason for this sobriquet, that the old Indian was a large square-framed man, with stooped shoulders, and large bushy head, which, the Indian said, made him resemble a buffalo; thus, the name, 'Buffalo Creek'.

 

Strong has the name Buffalo coming from the Native American for "Buffalo", while Dobbins translates the Native American words for "Basswood" to mean "Buffalo".  Dobbins story dates from the end of the 18th century, while Strong's story comes to us mid way through the 19th century. There is no independent verification of a Native American with either of these names ever existing, except for this story.

 Update 8/26/2023-If you look, Dobbins is not saying that Winne told him the Native American was named Buffalo but rather that the Native American was named 'Tehoseroron' or 'De-o-se-o wa'. Winne or Dobbins took this to mean Buffalo, but we know that these names described a "Place of Basswoods".  That means the Native American was named for the Creek and not vice versa.  

Demler notes on his May 1760 map, “A Creek known by the Name of Buffeloe Creek” which indicates that the British did not name the creek.  Since the French preceded the British and called the creek Bois Blanc (pronounced Boblo), it is unlikely that the Native American named Buffalo story is true.

Note- 8/26/2023-Since Demler explains that the creek is "known as Buffeloe Creek" that means that he did not name it, thus if it was named for a Buffalo prior to Demler who would have named it as such?  Demler is with the first group of English speakers and neither the French who named it Bois Blanc nor the Native Americans who called it Teosoway would have named it.

White settlers are not recorded in the area until some 20 to 30 years after Demler's map came out and then only a handful or two.

 

 

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