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About Siletz news. (Siletz, Oregon) 1983-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1985)
PAGE 10 - JUNE, 1985, SILETZ, OREGON Green Thumb Workers prepare cement grave markers that are being made for all graves without headstones. Indian Origins of the Names of the U.S. States Indian for tribal town, later a tribe (Alabamas or Alibamons) of the Creek confederacy. A rizona — Spanish version of Pima Indian word for “lit tle spring place,” or Aztec, arizuma, meaning “silver- bearing.” A rkansas - French variant of Kansas, a Sioux Indian name for “south wind peo ple.” C o n n e c tic u t — F ro m Mohican and other Algon quin words meaning “long river place.” D ela w are — Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to In dian tribe (Lenni-Lenape), and the state. A la b a m a - A coined name with an invented Indian meaning: “gem of the moun tains;” originally suggested for the Pike’s Peak mining territory (Colorado), then applied to the new mining te rrito ry of the Pacific Northwest. Another theory suggests Idaho may be a Kiowa Apache term for the Comanche. Illinois — French for Illini or land of Illini, Algonquin word meaning men or war riors. Indiana - Means “land of the Indians.” Io w a — In d ia n w ord variously translated as “one who puts to sleep ” or “beautiful land.” Kansas — Sioux word for Idaho — “south wind people.” K en tu c ky — Indian word variously tra n sla te d as “dark and bloody ground,” “meadow land” and “land of tomorrow.” M assachu setts - From In dian trib e nam ed a fte r “large hill place” identified by Capt. John Smith as being near Milton, Mass. M ic h ig an — From Chip pewa words mici gam a m eaning “ great w a te r,” after the lake of the same name. M in n e so ta — From Dakota Sioux word meaning “cloudy w ater” or “ Skytinted w ater” of the Minnesota River. M is s is s ip p i — Probably Chippewa; mici zibi, “great river” or “gathering-in of all the w aters.” Also: Algon quin word, “Messipi.” M issouri — Algonquin In dian trib e nam ed a fte r Missouri River, meaning “muddy w ater.” N ebraska — From Omaha or Otos Indian word meaning “ broad w a te r” or “ flat river,” describing the Platte River. N o rth D a k o ta — Dakota is Sioux for friend or ally. O hio — Iroquois word for “fine or good river.” O klaho m a — Choctaw coin ed word meaning red man, proposed by Rev. Allen Wright, Choctaw-speaking Indian. S outh D ako ta — See North Dakota. Tenn essee — Tanasi was the nam e of Cherokee villages on the Little Tenne ssee River. From 1784 to 1788 this was the State of Frank lin, or Frankland. Texas — Variant of word used by Caddo and other In dians meaning friends or allies, and applied to them by the Spanish in eastern Texas. Also written texias, tejas, teyas. U tah — From a Navajo word meaning upper, or higher up, as applied to a Shoshone tribe called Ute. Spanish form is Y utta, English Uta or Utah. Propos ed name Deseret, “land of honeybees,” from Book of Mormon, was rejected by Congress. W isconsin — An Indian name, spelled Ouisconsiri and Mesconsing by early chroniclers. Believed to mean “grassy place” in Chippewa. Congress made it Wisconsin. W yo m in g — The word was taken from Wyoming Valley, Pa., which was the site of an Indian m assacre became widely known by Campell’s poem, “ Gertrude of Wyom ing.” In Algonquin it means “large prairie place.”
