THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN STATE NAMES 



129 



cause the tribe of this name showed con- 

 siderable proclivities for wandering. 



Our greatest river, the Mississippi, 

 gives name to one of our Southern States. 

 The Indian word means "Gathering in 

 of All the Waters'' or "Great Long 

 River," which have been interpreted by 

 some to mean "Father of Waters," al- 

 though this is not a technically correct 

 translation. The Indian term for this 

 stream would seem to indicate that the 

 aborigines had a fair conception of its 

 great size. 



Texas, our largest Commonwealth and 

 the only one acquired by annexation, has 

 for a name an Indian word which origi- 

 nally meant "Friends" or "Allies" and 

 which was also used as a form of greet- 

 ing. Later it came to indicate a group 

 of tribes generally allied against the 

 Apaches of Arizona. The term grad- 

 ually came to include tribes from regions 

 as far apart as the Red River of Arkan- 

 sas and the Rio Grande. The name was 

 introduced by the early Spanish ex- 

 plorers, from whom later French and 

 English settlers received it. 



MEANINGS OF TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY 

 ARE OBSCURE 



Like many other States, Tennessee is 

 named for its principal river, although 

 this name was originally given to one of 

 its southerly tributaries and later spread 

 to the main stream. The name is of 

 Cherokee origin and came from a village 

 or locality, Tanasse, inhabited by this 

 great southern tribe. The meaning of 

 the word has been lost, and interpreta- 

 tions, such as "Bend in the River," from 

 the meanderings of the stream, are 

 merely fanciful. 



The Blue Grass State, Kentucky, also 

 bears a name of uncertain origin and 

 meaning. Reliable authorities state that 

 the name was derived from an Indian 

 word, "Kentake," meaning "Meadow 

 Land." On the other hand, General 

 George Rogers Clark, one of our greatest 

 pioneers and one of the conquerors of 

 this region, claimed that the word "Ken- 

 tuke." meaning "River of Blood," gave 

 the State its name. It has also been said 

 that the word is of Shawnee Indian ori- 

 gin and means "At the head of a river," 

 from the fact that this tribe used the 



Kentucky River in its migrations north 

 and south. The popular translation of 

 "Dark and Bloody Ground" was given 

 to Daniel Boone, the famous borderer of 

 the early days of the State, by an intelli- 

 gent Indian chief of his day, and the title 

 is supposed to have been descriptive of 

 the bloody warfare in colonial times, not 

 only between the Indians and the whites, 

 but also between the Indians from both 

 sides of the Ohio River, who used this 

 region as a battle-ground. 



The Buckeye State, Ohio, takes its 

 name from its principal river, which bore 

 a long Iroquois Indian name meaning 

 "Beautiful River." 



Illinois is named for the Illini tribe of 

 Indians, who lived in that section and 

 whose name meant "Men," and to which 

 the French added their adjective termi- 

 nation, "ois." 



INDIANS OFTEN USED NAMES OF RIVERS 

 AND LAKES 



The name of another Indian tribe, Ah- 

 hee-oo-ba, is peryetuated in Iowa. The 

 name meant "Sleepy Ones" or "Drowsy 

 Ones," and this probably goes far to- 

 ward explaining why this tribe was 

 nearly exterminated by the Sioux. Its 

 members lived in the valley of the State's 

 principal river, to which they gave their 

 name and after which, in turn, the State 

 was named. 



The Indian's penchant for naming 

 places after bodies of water is further 

 illustrated in the name of Michigan, 

 which comes from an Algonquin word. 

 "Mishigamaw," meaning "Big Lake" or 

 "Great Water," and called, of course, 

 after the great lake of that name. 



Now we come to ancther State name 

 the origin and meaning of which are un- 

 certain. Wisconsin, written by the early 

 French explorers of that region as 

 "Ouisconsin" and named for its chief 

 stream, is thought to have come from a 

 Sak Indian word translated as "Wild 

 Rushing Channel" and also as having 

 reference to holes in the banks of streams 

 where birds nest. However, neither of 

 these interpretations can be confirmed. 



Another river-named State is Minne- 

 sota, derived from a Sioux Indian word 

 meaning "Cloudv Water" or "Skv-tinted 

 Water." 



