STATE NAMES — ^HARRINGTON 385 



means any large river. Ohio Territory was created in 1783, taking 

 its name from the Ohio River. Oliio State was created in 1803. 



Oklahoma. — The name Oklahoma is a coined word in Choctaw 

 meaning "red person" ('ukla, "person"; huma', "red") and first ap- 

 peal's in the Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1866. It was proposed by 

 Eev. Allen Wright, a Choctaw-speaking Indian, who was a mission- 

 ary. "Red person" or "red man" implies contrast with the Whites 

 and was therefore not used in Pre-Columbian times to designate the 

 Indians. Oklahoma Territory was created in 1890, Oklahoma State 

 in 1907, 



Oregon. — The name Oregon can be traced back to Rogers who in 

 1765 wrote Ourigan. There is strong evidence in records of the life 

 of Rogers and that of his friend, Jonathan Carver, who also used the 

 term, that the name Oregon is Canadian French in origin. The 

 French word, standardly spelled ouragan, is used in Canadian 

 French to mean any storm, although the word originally came into 

 French from Spanish and is the same word as "hurricane," being 

 ultimately of Carib Indian origin. The Columbia River, with special 

 reference to its source, was probably referred to in very early times 

 by some French-speaking trapper as la riviere des Ouragans, "the 

 river of the squalls." Mackenzie, in a book published 1802, has a 

 chapter entitled "The Hurricane" in which he describes a land storm, 

 indicating that English usage sometimes agreed with that of the 

 Canadian French. Bryant, in his poem entitled "Thanatopsis," first 

 published in 1812, has Oregon as the name of the Columbia River. 

 Other suggested meanings have been that Oregon is a corruption of 

 the name Aragon, province of Spain, or that it stands for Spanish 

 orejon, "big-ear," a name that has been applied to several Indian 

 tribes. Capt. Bonneville, in a letter to Schoolcraft, stated that it was 

 derived from the Spanish word for the Artemesia or wild sage, saying 

 Spanish traders from Santa Fe called it Oregano and the old moun- 

 tain men corrupted this to Oregon. There being plenty of sage in 

 eastern Oregon, this was referred to as the Oregon or wild-sage 

 country. Oregon Territory was created in 1848, bearing the old name 

 of the Columbia River; Oregon State was established in 1859. 



Pennsylvania. — Pennsylvania was named by Charles II, King of 

 England, when he granted a charter to William Penn in 1680. It is 

 a compound of sylvania., neo-Latin for woodland, with the prefix 

 Penn, the surname of William Penn's father, Adm. William Penn. 

 It had been the desire of William Penn, the son, to call the colony 

 New Wales, but the King did not give this name. 



Rhode Island. — The name originated with Adrian Block, who, writ- 

 ing in Dutch, called Rhode Island Roodt Eylandt, meaning "red is- 

 land," "because of the fiery aspect of the place, caused by the red clay 

 in some portions of its shores." The spelling Rhode in English is to 



