What indigenous place names tell us

Adirondack, Alabama, Alaska, Algonquin, Allegheny, Apache, Apalachee, Appalachia, Appomattox, Arkansas, Biloxi, Calumet, Calusa, Canada, Caribou, Cayuga, Chatanooga, Chautauqua, Chepanoc, Cherokee, Chesapeake, Cheyenne, Chicago, Chickasaw, Chilliwak, Chinook, Chipola, Chippewa, Chiwawa, Choctaw, Clatsop, Coloma, Colusa, Comanche, Commack, Connecticut, Coquitlam, Cree, Curyung, Cuyahoga, Dakota, Delaware, Denali, Detroit, Erie, Hackensack, Hawaii, Hialeah, Hiawatha, Hopi, Huron, Idaho, Illinois, Inola, Inyo, Iowa, Iroquois, Kalamazoo, Kanab, Kansas, Kelowna, Kenosha, Kentucky, Keweenaw, Klondike, Kuskokwim, Lillooet, Mackinac, Mackinaw, Malibu, Maliseet, Manatee, Manhattan, Manitoba, Mantou, Mattawa, Massachusetts, Meramec, Merrick, Merrimac, Metoac, Miami, Miccosukee, Michigan, Michipicuten, Micmac, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Minnewanka, Minocqua, Mississippi, Missouri, Moab, Moccasin, Modoc, Mohawk, Mohegan, Mohican, Mojave, Monache, Montauk, Muscogee, Muskegan, Muskimgun, Muskoka, Muskwa, Nakota, Nanaimo, Nantucket, Napa, Narragansett, Natchez, Naugatuck, Navajo, Nebraska, Niagara, Norwalk, Ocala, Ohio, Okanagan, Okeechobee, Oklahoma, Omaha, Omak, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Oregon, Orono, Osage, Oswego, Ottawa, Palouse, Pamlico,Panola, Pataha, Pawnee, Pennacook, Pennamaquan, Pensacola, Penticton, Peoga, Peoria, Peotone, Pequot, Pocahontas, Poconos, Pontiac, Potomac, Potosi, Poughkeepsie, Quebec, Rappahannock, Roanoke, Sarasota, Saratoga, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Savannah, Sawhatchee, Scituate, Seattle, Sebago, Seneca, Sequoia, Seminole, Sewanee, Shannock, Shawnee, Shenandoah, Shetucket, Shiboygan, Shoshone, Sicamous, Sioux, Siska, Sonoma, Sowanee, Spokane, Squamish, Squaw, Stawamus, Sunapee, Susquehanna, Swannanoa, Tacoma, Taconic, Tahoe, Takoma, Tallahassee, Tampa, Tecumseh, Tennessee, Texarcana, Texas, Tichigan, Ticonderoga, Tippecanoe, Tomahawk, Topawingo, Topeka, Toronto, Tucson, Tulsa, Tunica, Tuscaloosa, Tuscarora, Tuskegee, Tuya, Utah, Ute, Wabamun, Wabasca, Wabash, Waco, Wadena Walla Walla, Wallowa, Wanakit, Wanchese, Wannock, Wapota, Wasco, Watauga, Watonga, Waupaca, Wausau, Wenatchee, Wenonah, Wichita, Willamette, Winnebago, Winnimac, Winnipeg, Winona, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yakutat, Yazoo, Yosemite, Yuba, Yukon, Yuma – what language do these sonorous names speak? What message do they convey to us?

Indigenous names, vestiges of the first nations who lived and prospered in the rich lands of the Americas. Anthropologists estimate that some ten million human beings resided in North America when their lands were “discovered” by the Europeans. This vast continent was theirs, full of villages, wigwams, laughter and life. Where are these people now? Where have they all gone? Gone and forgotten, blown with the wind and the clouds.

Not only the British migrants to Massachusetts massacred the indigenous, also the Spanish "conquistadores" in the territories that are anow Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado. Among the great murderers was Juan de Oñate y Salazar, who massacred some 1000 of the Acuma people in what is today New Mexico and had the remaining men over twenty years amputed of the right leg.

What does Chapultepec, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Mexico and Tikal tell us? That south of the Rio Grande the continent was populated by millions of human beings, perhaps as many as 60 million. Their land was not terra nullius. We can still recognize the Aztec, the Maya, the Inca, the Quechua in the populations of Central and South America. From the writings of the Dominican friars Bartolomé de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos we have learned that the Arawacs, the Siboneyes and Tainos were massacred and enslaved. How many indigenous lives were deliberately extinguished by the European colonizers (migrants with the sword)? How many died or disease and deprivation? Ten million? Twenty?

The “Christianization" of Latin America and the Anglo-Saxon policy of “manifest destiny” constituted perhaps the greatest demographic catastrophe in the long history of mankind,
maybe the 21st century will revitalize these tribes and their millennia of understanding and caring for nature.

Alaska means "great land" in Aleutian
Allegheny means "beautiful stream" in Lenape language
Apalachee means "other side of the river" in Muskogean
Chesapeake means "great shellfish bay" in Algonquin
Chicago means "place of the wild onion" in Algonquin
Illinois means "odinary speaker" in Algonquin
Iowa means "sleepy ones" in Algonquin
Kansas means "Southwind" in Sioux language
Kentucky means "meadow" in Shawnee
Manhattan means "island" in Lenape language
Massachusets means "large hill place" in Algonquin
Mississippi means "big river" in Algonquin
Missouri means "people of the big canoes" in Algonquin
Nebraska means "flat river" in Sioux language
Niagara means "Thundering water" in Iroquois
Ohio means "good river" in Iroquois
Ontario means "beautiful lake" in Iroquois
Ottawa means "trading centre" in Algonquin
Pensacola means "hair-people" in Muskogean
Potomac means "something brought" in Algonquin
Quebec means "straits" or "narrows" in Micmac
Toronto means "meeting place" in Huron
Wallowa means "sinding water" in Sahaptin language
Winnipeg means "dirty water" in Algonquin
Wyoming means "at the big plains" in Algonquin

etc. etc.