For the English colonists living in constant fear of raids, the appearance of that smoky, warm air signaled danger. It wasn't a pleasant vacation from winter; it was an omen. Thus, they named the weather phenomenon after the people they associated with the violence that occurred during it: Indian Summer . A less violent, more anthropological theory suggests the name comes from Native American survival practices. In New England, Algonquian tribes had a name for this period— Cósmewe (or variations thereof), meaning “the time when the fog comes.”
When the settlers asked for the name of this strange, warm weather, the native translator, using broken English, might have said “the summer of the dead.” The settler, hearing the word for the people (“Indian”) rather than the word for the spirit (“Ancestor”), corrupted the phrase. indian summer origin
The Haunting Ephemeral: Unpacking the True Origin of "Indian Summer" For the English colonists living in constant fear
For the English colonists living in constant fear of raids, the appearance of that smoky, warm air signaled danger. It wasn't a pleasant vacation from winter; it was an omen. Thus, they named the weather phenomenon after the people they associated with the violence that occurred during it: Indian Summer . A less violent, more anthropological theory suggests the name comes from Native American survival practices. In New England, Algonquian tribes had a name for this period— Cósmewe (or variations thereof), meaning “the time when the fog comes.”
When the settlers asked for the name of this strange, warm weather, the native translator, using broken English, might have said “the summer of the dead.” The settler, hearing the word for the people (“Indian”) rather than the word for the spirit (“Ancestor”), corrupted the phrase.
The Haunting Ephemeral: Unpacking the True Origin of "Indian Summer"
