348 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



Noreinher 



NAMES FROM INDIANS 



THEY ARE ATTACHED TO AMERICAN 

 LAKES, RIVERS AND TOWNS. 



Some Interesting Information Conceraine 

 Their Origin— They Contain Curious Bits 

 of Native Thouglit or Fancy, History or 

 Tradition. 



Just as the history of Celtic, Roman, 

 Saxou, Dane and Norman occupation is 

 marked in England by the geographical 

 names that these various peoples have 

 left so in our own country the many 

 Indian names of rivers, lakes, moun- 

 tains, districts and towns remain a per- 

 tnaueut witness, independent of written 

 history, to the fact that the red man 

 possessed the laud before us. 



Here, as in other parts of the world, 

 "language adheres to the soil when the 

 lips that spoke it have been resolved in- 

 fco dust. Mountains repeat and rivers 

 murmur the voices of nations denation- 

 alized or extirpated in their own land. " 



The Indian names that dot the map of 

 America are full of meaning. Many of 

 them, when translated, are found to 

 contain curious bits of native thought 

 or fancy, history or tradition. Some, 

 like Niagara and Oregon, are so euphoni- 

 ous that they easily lend themselves to 

 the uses of the poet. Others, such as 

 Moostncmaguutic, Moliichuukamunk, 

 Wellokenepacook, are as savage as were 

 the people that originated them. 



Indian geographical names are very 

 similar in origin to their persouL.l 

 names. Ihe Dakota Indians of the 

 present day have applied to Geiieral 

 Crook the name Wi-cau-hpi-yamui 

 (Three Stars), in allusion to the stars 

 on the shoulder strap of a general's uni- 

 form, and the cue suggests the name by 

 which the Chinese are known to them — 

 Peco-kan-yan-hau-i-ka (scalp lock.) 



This same quality of poetic descrip- 

 tiveness is seen in most of their local 

 and their riv( r names. Modern explorers 

 and geograpliers often apply personal 

 names to natural olijects, and thus we 

 have Mount Hood, Pike's peak, the Mac- 

 kenzie river, Hudson bay and many 

 others. The Indians never did this, 

 though sometimes they gave their tribal 



names to rivers near which they lived. 

 The Hudson river was known to the In- 

 dians of New York as Mohicanittuck, 

 the river of the Mohicans, and the na- 

 tive name of the Delaware was Lena- 

 pewihittuck, the river of the Lenape, 

 or Delawares. 



The Assiniboin Indians of Canada 

 have left their name to a province, a 

 river and a town. The word means 

 "stone people," and isof no significance 

 until we learn that this tribe, unlike 

 the other Indians, made no clay pot- 

 tery, but boiled their food by placing 

 redhot stones in waterproof vessels of 

 bark. Chippeway, pointed skins, is a 

 name that refers to the peculiar way in 

 which these Indians wore their skin 

 robes, the points hanging down behind 

 and before. Eskimo is an Algonkin 

 word meaning eaters of raw flesh. Zu- 

 ni, the people cf the long nails, alludes 

 to the fact that the medicine men of 

 this pueblo always wore their nails 

 long. 



A South Carolina river, which now 

 bears the prosaic name of Broad, was 

 known to the Indians as Eswawpudde- 

 nah, the dividing river, after a bloody 

 battle which made this stream the di- 

 viding line between the Catawbas and 

 the Cherokees. The name Piscataway 

 has mucli the eiime meaning. Devil's 

 lake, in North Dakota, is still known 

 to the Indians as Minnewaukan, the 

 mysterious water. They say that in a 

 terrible battle fought on its banks many 

 years ago the contending warriors, as 

 they slew each other, pitched the dead 

 over the precipice into the deep water 

 until very few were left. Since then 

 mysterious sounds are heard in the 

 neighborhood, and the Indians will uei 

 ther drink tl^e water nor eat fish that 

 are taken from it. 



Genisee cr Geniseo means beautiful 

 valley; Onondaga, on the hills; Canau- 

 daigua, place chosen for a settlement; 

 Omaha, to go against the current; At- 

 tacapau, man eaters; Chitimacha (La. ), 

 they possess cooking vessels; Athapas- 

 ca, place of hay and reeds; Yankton, 

 end village; Sissetou, village; Owato- 

 ma, straight; Waseca, rich. Winona, 

 little daughter (a town in Winconsin), 

 perpetuates the name of an Indian girl 

 who, being disajipointed in love, cast 

 herself into Lake Pepin from a nniut 



