Marián Janík, 4.
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American Indian place names
Many American places are named after Indians’ words. In fact, over half of the states got
their names from Indians’ words. Many of these places have names that we almost take for
granted these days and most people are unaware of their Native American aboriginal origins. For
example the name of Kentucky comes from an Iroquoian word (Kentahten), which means "land
of tomorrow." or Connecticut's name comes from the Mohican word (Quinnehtukqut), which
means "beside the long tidal river."
The number of geographical names of places that have been named after Native Americans
is fascinating. It is very large. Many names of rivers, mountains, towns have origin in Indians’
language. This is typical for entire country. Native Indians lived throughout the North American
continent. Particularly in United States, it was also in Alaska and on the island of Hawaii. When
European people colonized the new continent, they did not know the Indian language and mostly
they could not pronounce the name of places properly, so they changed the name a bit, but the
nucleus remained. The Native American Indian tribes living in certain region influenced the name
of the place countless times and very much. Different tribes lived in different regions, but the
influence is huge everywhere. For example, name of river Mississippi originated in Algonquian
tribe, living by the river, and they called it "Father of Waters". Aleuts called Alaska “great land”
or” that which the sea breaks against” or Athabaskan tribe’s name for Mount McKinley is "The
High One".
High concentration of Native place names is in Minnesota. It is because of great Indian
settlement living here. The conditions for living are good. Plain is located in the north, as a result
of glaciers were moving over the area. So the soil is quite fertile and it is know that number of
Natives lived by the rivers (Hudson, Mississippi). Because of the conditions, the settlement here
was frequent and they had fairly affected the naming of geographical place names. Examples of
Native name in Minnesota: Nashwauk (political unit), Us-kab-wan-ka (river), Mesabi (range).
Modern place names have been derived from Native American names in a variety of
different ways, including the following:
The modern name is a translation into English (or occasionally another European
language) of the original Native American name.
The modern name is an Anglicised corruption of the Native American name.
The modern name is an Anglicised corruption of the name of the Native American people
who lived in the area. Sometimes the link is extremely tenuous due to mistakes by the
Europeans.
The modern name is unrelated to the Native American name. In some cases the original
Native American name is still used as well as the modern name.
In a small number of cases the name given by Europeans has now been abandoned in
favour of a reversion to the original Native American name. An example is Denali, which
was known for a time as Mount McKinley.
Examples for Native Indian meanings: Utah (from the Ute tribe, meaning "people of the
mountains.”), Texas (from an Indian word meaning "friends."), Pensacola (Florida) (Choctaw for
"hair" and "people."), Missouri ("Missouri" means "town of the large canoes”), Manhattan (New
York) (Algonquian, means "isolated thing in water."), Indiana (meaning "land of Indians.").
Sources: freespiritgallery.ca, wikipedia.com, johncletheroe.org, infoplease.com, netstate.com,
wikipedia.org
