THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN STATE NAMES 



133 



Photograph from Publishers' Photo Service, Inc. 



A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN FLIGHT FROM STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, TO MINEOLA. 



LONG ISLAND 



The Nutmeg State derives its Indian name from Quonoktacut, which the aborigines called 



the river now known as the Connecticut. 



that the Nebraska River (now known as 

 the Platte) would furnish a suitable 

 name for the territory then being formed. 



The State of Kansas was named for 

 an Indian tribe which inhabited that re- 

 gion and lived along the river to which 

 it gave its name. The Kansas or Kanza 

 Indians were of the Sioux family and 

 their name means "Wind People" or 

 "People of the South Wind.'' 



Oklahoma also bears a tribal name, 

 taken from the Choctaw tongue. It has 

 the peculiarly significant meaning of 

 "Red People." 



Wyoming's name originated in 

 pennsylvania 



It is a strange fact that a valley in 

 Pennsylvania, famed for a Revolutionary 

 massacre, and a far western State should 

 bear the same name ; yet the latter is 

 named for the former. Two meanings, 



both well supported by competent au- 

 thorities, have been given to the word 

 Wyoming. One is that it is a corruption 

 of a Delaware or Leni-Lenape word. 

 "Maugh-wau-wama," meaning "Exten- 

 sive Plains." The other interpretation 

 which has been put upon it is "Mountains 

 with Valleys Alternating." Both of these 

 meanings could be fittingly applied to the 

 State of Wyoming. 



One of the most highly civilized In- 

 dian tribes in the history of the Xew 

 World, the Aztecs, has given us a State 

 name, for our southern neighbor derives 

 her name from the word 'Alexitli." an 

 Aztec tutelary divinity ; hence Xew Mex- 

 ico. Another meaning given to this word 

 is "Habitation of the God of War." 



A small southwestern tribe, the Papa- 

 gos, a peaceful people and sadly harassed 

 by the warlike Apaches, gives us the 

 name of Arizona. It is taken from a 



