Why are so many states's names based on Native American languages?
There were natives living there first.
White people showed up and asked “what’s this place called?” And the people who lived there told them.
Hey bud, where are we? Mass-a-chu-setts? Word.
Then we have Maine which no one knows where it came from. I just imagine some white folks showing up speaking loudly and slowly in English “WHERE ARE WE MR NATIVE MAN?”
“Maneosawassett... duh... idiots.”
“OK MAINE WE GOT IT. THANK YOU. WHERE IS YOUR NEAREST LAND?”
Then there's Idaho, which was just completely made up, and claimed to be Shoshone.
You don’t have to convince me. I’m from the Hoosier State and no one knows where the hell that came from. There’s like a half dozen theories and tall tales but no real evidence.
Still, I’m a Hoosier.
My understanding was that it was easier than pronouncing the original term for someone from Indiana, which was done by blasting an air horn. This turned out to be enormously difficult in 1800 and earlier, before the invention of the air horn.
The name of the state and the name of the residents were farmed out to two separate departments. The first team found Little Turtle and asked him, "Do you know the name of the people who live here?" Utterly annoyed at being interrupted, and not wanting to bother pulling out his air horn, he replied, "Who? Sure." Then he quickly left when he was the second team arriving to ask what the land was called. They just shrugged and said generic Indians lived there, hence Indiana.
And many Michigan counties IIRC, didn't they hire someone to create native-sounding names?
It's generally accepted that Maine is named after the province of Maine in France
That is a theory but I am not sure about “generally accepted.” There’s not much evidence for any of the supposed theories.
It's what I learned in Maine history class or whatever when I was kid, I don't know if it's been proven or not but that's the accepted theory around here now
And(granted not a state, but a city) some places are named after chiefs, like Seattle.
Wow. My entire life I just assumed it was “sea” + some random suffix that meant city or something.
He was the Chief for the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Seattle
Another name for him was Sealth, which is why Soundgardens cover of Into the Void is followed by Sealth: They used his speech on the environment and American Indian/Native American rights instead of the original lyrics.
Fun fact: the original name for Seattle was "New York-Alki", with Alki meaning "by and by", essentially translating to "New York, but going to be better eventually"
So Alki "going to be better eventually" beach.
Don't forget Tacoma, Puyallup, Tumwater, Steilacoom, Spokane, Chehalis, Chelan, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Chimacum, Clallam, Cle Elum, Enumclaw, Hoquiam, Wapato, Issaquah, Klickitat, Mukilteo, Neah Bay, Okanogan, Omak, Palouse, Quilcene, Sequim, Skykomish, Skamania, Tenino, Twisp, Walla Walla, and Wenatchee. I am sure there are lots more, but those are just off the top of my head.
Oh of course, Seattle is just the largest city in the state, so it's going to be more recognizable for non-Americans/Washingtonians
Niwot, CO is another.
Fun fact: Left Hand (the beer) is named after Chief Niwot too because he was left handed
Thanks for answer.
It's just that I found it confusing why would white settlers name states after Native American words. I thought their racism would not accept it.
The original settlers of the areas would have traded with and depended on the Natives for support. Were they racist? For sure, but they had relationships with the tribes. So when a tribe says "this place is Mississippi" thats what they called it.
It wasn't until governments got involved that the genocide took place
It wasn't until governments got involved that the genocide took place
Well that's just patently false. The Spanish settlers of the Americas were ll about killing and enslaving right off the bat, and most of the deaths of the natives in what is now the US occurred before the natives even encountered a white person that's to disease spreading throughout the land.
It wasn't until governments got involved that the genocide took place
Thanks for explaining this to me. And I am sorry, I didn't want to sound ignorant.
Racism is only unique to white people who moved from England to the US?
Wow.
Well... that wasn't so.
Your idea of how racist white people in the US are or have been in the past does not seem to be based on reality. It is also fairly insulting.
"So what is this place called anyway?"
"Narragansett"
"How dare thee speak the devil's tongue?! Off with thy head!"
I'm getting kinda tired of people coming here and just automatically assuming the worst about us. I'm not even talking about trolls or people just looking to soapbox and talk shit, I just mean regular folk asking questions. I'm sure OP did not mean to offend, he doesn't seem like one of the trolls we sometimes get, but his assumptions are nonetheless still kind of offensive.
" I'm sure OP did not mean to offend, he doesn't seem like one of the trolls we sometimes get, but his assumptions are nonetheless still kind of offensive."
You are right. I didn't want to sound offensive. It is just that I was curious about names of the state and sadly I ended up making myself look like a bigot who thinks that all white Americans were racist. Of course I am not, I am sure there were plenty of white settles who were not prejudiced against Natives or Blacks and I am aware of the fact that prejudice exists among all people.
Honestly don't feel bad, the sub can be overly sensitive at the thought of foreigners "insulting" Americans, even though the sub is for asking questions. Plus I didn't even find your question offensive, many of the first European settlers in the USA who lived in the 1600s and 1700s had incredibly different views on morality and race compared to modern Americans.
This would be like a modern Turkish person getting upset because you asked them a question about the actions of the Ottoman Empire in 1607.
Not a bigot, just ignorant and eager to assume the worst.
The literary references in that show make me so happy.
A few months ago while unemployed, quarantined, and with literally nothing better to do, I rewatched that show and looked up every reference as they made them. The writers of that show do not get enough credit for the amount of research they put into a 2 second joke that goes over most of the audiences' heads.
Which I admit makes me feel that much better every time I get one. Gives me a completely useless feeling of superiority.
I thought their racism would not accept it.
Do you honestly believe only white Americans are or can be racist?
Considering the settlers were Europeans it is an ironic position to hold.
And many of them were not even English.
I mean, did OP say or even imply that?
lol
Here I am knowing my home state is named in Latin for “place of the Indians” and the capital is “Indian City.”
That’s not weird right?
But joking aside, white settlers often has very close relations with natives, allied with them, fought them, traded with them, etc. it wasn’t some cartoonish two warring football teams type of thing. When you are a lone white dude showing up in the native town of Omaha and you ask where you are and they say Omaha you write that on your map.
This ^
It seems like in our rush to "own" the end result or whatever many people have lost track just how long the colonial powers and later americans lived alongside native peoples in many regions.
I’m glad you agree but I also don’t want to lose sight of the other side. Native Americans as a generalized ethnic and cultural group(s) are almost gone in this country and our forebears did that, both on purpose and by accident.
I don't want to minimize that at all, just retain a full picture. Boiling it down to a near instant and always violent genocide gives a poor understanding of the events. That leads to fairly innocent misunderstandings like this post, but also an inability to take the lessons of what long-term cultural genocide can look like. Losing that understanding is not going to do anyone any favors. We have a bad habit of getting laser focused on the final events in various regions that amounted to a clean-up effort rather than the real roots of the atrocities and a lot of our own cultural roots in the process.
I think we can agree there.
I tend to view things as the process being important rather than the end result.
Town and state names can in the USA can be very complicated. A lot of the modern USA was at one point controlled by France. The French unlike the English sent very few settlers to the New World and preferred collaboration/trade with existing tribal nations. The French who weren't settling there permanently chose to call the areas after the tribes they were dealing with
Eventually, when the Americans started to settle into the formerly French territories oftentimes, they would keep the names of towns and regions. Americans also did the same in a lot of territories we acquired from Spain and Mexico.
Interesting driving up the West Coast. It starts Spanish (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc.) turns into English names (Redding, Eugene, Portland) then the names start getting more indigenous (Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver)
vancouver is actually the name of an early british explorer, george vancouver. but yeah there’s a lot of indigenous names in washington
Native Americans were here before white people. The first to arrive in a location get to name the places, it's as simple as that.
The first to arrive in a location get to name the places
Not exactly how it works, but it's definitely a lot more convenient to keep calling something by an established name than to enforce a name that no one else recognizes
Funny story
Kansas state was named after Kansas tribe pronounced Kan-saw but they insisted on pronouncing it like Kansas (Can-sezz)
Arkansas was named after a similar Kansas tribe also pronounced Ken-saw, and actually properly uses the originally pronunciation. Arkansas is pronounced ar-ken-saw)
This is why Arkansas and Kansas dont rhyme.
Another funny story
A tribe in the northern region of North America (now Canada) that extended into now America called themselves "Red skins" and the settlers "white skins." That's how they distinguished themselves.
They actually called themselves "Rouge skins" in French because they were communicating with French-Canadiens. And from there throughout time they were known as the red skins.
This is where Washington red skins got their name.
On opening day for the new football team the Washington team honored the natives ancestors by bringing them out onto the field to a roaring crowd in acknowledgment. A ceremony for the original tribe was given.
The Indians symbolized bravery, nature, strength, spirit, America. This fit in alongside Chiefs, Pirates, Raiders, Vikings, Patriots, Celtics, etc...
Later weenies blamed something something something. Now we have the Washington Football Team. No more homage to the tribe that called themselves the rougue skins.
Thank you for attending my Ted talk.
Thanks for sharing this. Should definitely be remembered that it didn’t start out as offensive.
Since the original question has already been answered I will just add that not everywhere that has a Native American sounding name is actually really Native American.
A lot of the counties in Michigan were originally named by this geographer guy who sorta blended NA languages with Latin, Greek, and Arabic. So even though it might sound NA it's really just kinda made up by settlers. I imagine other parts of the country may have similar examples of faux NA names.
A lot of states were not named after natives directly, they were named after a principal river in their borders which in turn were named after native words. Examples: Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee and probably others.
man I don't know why people are jumping down your throat for this, it's not that weird to think that people who perpetrated a genocide also would reject placenames from the people they displaced. But that is not so! You see cities, states/provinces/etc, and even countries in the Americas named for what (some) indigenous people called them: Ottawa, Mexico, Uruguay, Curitiba, Manaus... it's all over the two continents.
I think another aspect to this was the ability to create an American identity of place separate of European heritage. You could have New York and New Jersey, constantly a throw back to England, or you could have a mental picture of a White American man forging ahead and taming this new, wild place that is uniquely his. A Massachusetts, a Connecticut, an Appalachia, a Chattahoochee (I know these last two aren't states).
I have nothing to support this claim but it's interesting to think about.
Makes a lot of sense actually, that's a good point. Also now I have the Alan Jackson song stuck in my head.
danananananana
Before the Europeans came to America, the Natives had been there for centuries, and when the country became independent from Britain, the Europeans wanted to preserve the Native American names, lots of the Europeans and Native Americans worked alongside together, and the natives called the areas by the native names, and the New Americans created states based off of native American names. It was a blend of Native American and European names.
Let's compare to see how many state names have Native American origins.
In the US, 26/50 states are of Native American origin.
In Brazil, it's 12/26.
In Mexico, it's 19/31
In Peru, it's 20 or 21/25.
What aren’t more of them that way? I wish they were.
Rename New England "Iroquoisia" and the Great Lake states "Huronia"
Because this was their country first.
"country"
Oldest participatory democracy in the world is the Iroquois confederation.
Thats true
but I was more pointing to the fact; native americans weren't living or claimed every part of where the original colonists settled
You move in and start interacting with the natives. They tell you what the place is called. There is inevitably a conflict between the two because any time two people try to cohabitate there is which the American Indians usually lose because they all have one of the deadliest plagues in human history.
Really?
New Jersey is French/English (Jersey Islands)
Pennsylvania was an English guy (Penn's Woods)
Delaware sound Native American but it was an asshole named De La Warre (English again with Norman title)
New York, York-England
Maryland - English
Virginia - English
North South Carolina - King Charles of Spain.
Virginia was named for Elizabeth I, the”Virgin Queen.” (Different context.”) The first English child born in N. America was named Virginia Dare.
The Carolinas were named after an English king, not a Spanish one.
Because colonizers love trophies and reminders
White settlers came to the Seattle area in 1851, establishing a townsite they first called New York, and then, adding a word from the Chinook jargon meaning "by-and-by," New York-Alki. They soon moved a short distance across Elliott Bay to what is now the historic Pioneer Square district, where a protected deep-water harbor was available. This village was soon named Seattle, honoring the Duwamish Indian leader named Sealth.
https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/brief-history-of-seattle
My state was named after a king, but our capital city was based off the Native American word for the area, but In said in French, Baton Rouge:red stick
Because that was the name of the place
States? Wait til you see the town names.
Weehawken, Old Tappan, Absecon, Shamong, Communipaw, Hackensack, Ho-Ho-Kus, Mahwah, Manasquan, Totowa, Ramapo...
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