History of New York City (prehistory–1664) with the ethnic and racial balance of the community. The economic activity brought in a wide variety of ethnic groups to the fledgling city during the 17th century, including Spanish, Jews, and Africans, some of them as slaves. The Dutch origins can still be seen in many names in New York City, such as Coney Island (from "Konijnen Eiland" – Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Bowery from "bouwerij" (modern Dutch "boerderij" = "farm"), Brooklyn (from Breukelen), Harlem from Haarlem (formalized in 1658 as "Nieuw Haarlem"), Greenwich Village (from Greenwijck, meaning "pine wood quarter"), Flushing (from Vlissingen) and Staten Island (from "Staaten
Valatie, New York Valatie, New York Valatie (; ) is a village with several waterfalls in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,819 at the 2010 census. The village is at the center of the town of Kinderhook on US 9. Valatie was first named "Pachaquak", meaning "cleared meadow", by the earliest Native American settlers—Algonquian Mohicans—who lived along the banks of Valatie's two waterways now referred to as Valatie Kill and Kinderhook Creek. Part of the original New Netherland, the first European settlers were the Dutch who settled Kinderhook around 1665, and named this area "Vaaltje", which means "little falls".