Editing Charles River (section)

===Pre-colonial===
Long before European settlers named and shaped the Charles, Native Americans living in New England made the river a central part of their lives. At the time of European colonization in the early 1600s, settlements of [[Massachusett people]] were present along the river at ''[[Nonantum]]'' in current-day [[Newton, Massachusetts|Newton]] and ''Pigsgusset'' in current-day [[Watertown, Massachusetts|Watertown]].

Prior to the arrival of [[Puritans|Puritan]] colonists in the 1620s, [[John Smith of Jamestown|Captain John Smith]] of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] explored and mapped the coast of New England, originally naming the Charles River the Massachusetts River, which he derived from the [[Massachusett people]] living in the region, not from their actual name for the river, ''Quinobequin''. When Smith presented his map to Prince Charles, future [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]], he suggested that the Prince should feel free to change any of the "barbarous names" for "English" ones. The Prince made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is the Charles River which Charles named for himself.<ref>{{cite book |last= Stewart |first= George R. |author-link= George R. Stewart |title= Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States |url= https://archive.org/details/namesonlandhisto0000stew |url-access= registration |orig-year= 1945 |edition= Sentry edition (3rd) |year= 1967 |publisher= [[Houghton Mifflin]] |page= [https://archive.org/details/namesonlandhisto0000stew/page/38 38]}}</ref>

The native name for the Charles River was ''Quinobequin'', possibly meaning "meandering" in [[Massachusett]] from ''quinnuppe'' or "it turns."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Trumbull|first=James Hammond|title=Natick Dictionary: A New England Indian Lexicon|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8032-2281-6|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|pages=139}}</ref> Other sources state this name was transferred from the Kennebec River in Maine to Cambridge by Prince Charles at the time he renamed this river in his name.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Douglas-Lithgow|first=R. A.|title=Dictionary of American-Indian Place and Proper Names in New England|publisher=Salem Press|year=1909|location=Salem, MA|pages=152}}</ref> Still another explanation is that ''Quinobequin'' was a descriptive term for any long body of water for Eastern Algonquin peoples, which European explorers and settlers interpreted as a local proper name. Examples include the ''[[Kennebec River]]'' ("long water place") and ''[[Kennebunk, Maine|Kennebunk]]'' in [[Maine]], the ''[[Quinebaug River]]'' ("long pond"), ''[[Quinapoxet River]]'' ("at the little long pond"), and ''[[Quinnipiac River]]'' ("long pond") in present-day [[Massachusetts]], [[Connecticut]], and [[New Hampshire]].<ref name=":0" />