Geographic Names in the United States 



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with the dusky brothers for his furs or 

 when he bargained for his land it was 

 convenient to employ the geographical 

 terms already in use by the Indian. 

 Sometimes the white man gave the river 

 or lake a new name, as did Hudson and 

 De la Ware and Champlain, but oftener 

 he accepted the original, and today the 

 most frequent reminder that we have of 

 the unfortunate race is the hundreds of 

 Indian names, mostly of rivers or lakes, 

 sometimes of cities, counties, and states, 

 named after the tribes that dwelt in the 

 vicinity. 



The extent to which the early settlers 

 adopted Indian names differs widely in 

 different parts of the country. Twenty- 

 four rivers of Maine, 17 out of 28 rivers 

 of Connecticut, 40 rivers in Georgia, 32 

 in Florida, and most of those of Penn- 

 sylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana 

 have Indian names. In Kentucky, Ten- 

 nessee, and the large majority of trans- 

 Mississippi States Indian words are 

 much less common than they are east of 

 the Appalachians. For example, only 

 7 of Tennessee's 30 important streams 

 carry Indian names, and not one large 

 stream wholly in Kentucky and not one 

 in the great State of Montana has an 

 Indian name. 



Next after rivers lakes remind us 

 most frequently by their names that the 

 red man once dwelt by their waters. 

 Hundreds of New England lakes, par- 

 ticularly of Maine, most of the impor- 

 tant lakes of New York, and 4 out of 

 the 5 Great Lakes tell of the Indian. 



Even in those states where rivers and 

 lakes most generally bear Indian names 

 the political divisions, the mountains, 

 and the shore features do not. Only 2 

 of the original 13 states, Massachusetts 

 and Connecticut, and 3 of the mountain 

 states, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming, 

 have Indian names, while 16 of the 18 

 Mississippi Valley states have such 

 names. The two exceptions are Wis- 

 consin and Louisiana, both of French 

 origin. 



Of the 150 cities in the United States 

 with 25,000 or more people less than a 

 dozen have names of Indian origin. In 

 most cases where states, counties, or 

 cities bear Indian names they have bor- 

 rowed them from rivers or lakes which 

 already bore them. New York has 20 

 counties with Indian names, and leads 

 all of the states in this particular. Six 

 out of the 16 counties of Maine have 

 Indian names ; but aside from Maine 

 and New York Indian words form but 

 a very small proportion of the county 

 names in the United States. In the 

 geographical names of Indian origin the 

 differences in tribal dialects are every- 

 where striking. The horrible words of 

 the Russian language do not differ more 

 widely from the soft, mellow language 

 of Italy or France than do the Indian 

 names in northern New England from 

 those of New York. Indian words in 

 Connecticut differ radically in sound 

 from those of New Jersey, and those of 

 South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida 

 differ equally from all others. 



Contrast the unspeakable names of 

 the lakes of Maine with the delightfully 

 euphonious names of the lakes of New 

 York: 



Maine New York 



Chesuncook Seneca 

 Pamedecook Owasco 

 Motesentock Otsego 

 Molechunkemunk Onondaga 

 Moostocmaguntic Cayuga 

 Mallawamkiag Cayuta 

 Cauquomogomoc Oneida 

 Again note the difference in sound of 

 the words from different parts of Con- 

 necticut : 



Mashapaug Housatonic 

 Pistepaug Mystic 

 Wangumbaug Niantic 

 Waremaug Scantic 

 Pomeraug Willimantic 

 Quinebaug Yantic 

 It is evident that the above words tell 

 of very different dialects, and hence of 

 different tribes. The characteristic 



