 In the Ojibwe language, "Wash-ten-ong" literally translates as "far away waters", and was then used by the Ojibwe as the name for the Grand River due to its great length.Thus "Washtenaw" could mean "far away waters".Four years after the first platting out of the county, Washtenaw was established as a separate self-administered county by an act of the Michigan Territorial Legislature, in 1826.