List of Indiana placenames of Native American origin

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Many places throughout the state of Indiana take their names from Native American indigenous languages. This list includes rivers, lakes, counties, townships and towns. Some of the names have been anglicized, while others have been translated into English or French.

Contents

The primary Native American languages in Indiana are Miami-Illinois and Potawatomi; the largest number of place names on this list are from these two languages. Some place names are derived from other native languages, such as Kickapoo, Shawnee, and the Delaware languages Munsee and Unami. These are all Algonquian languages.

This list also includes names of ultimate Native American origin even if they were not used by Native Americans as place names in Indiana, such as Osceola and Wanatah, which were named by white settlers in honor of Seminole and Dakota leaders respectively.

The name of Indiana means 'land of the Indians' or "Indian Land." [1]

Indigenous Tribes of Indiana

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Places

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E

F

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M

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See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami people</span> Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio

The Miami are a Native American nation originally speaking one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, they occupied territory that is now identified as north-central Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami were historically made up of several prominent subgroups, including the Piankeshaw, Wea, Pepikokia, Kilatika, Mengakonkia, and Atchakangouen. In modern times, Miami is used more specifically to refer to the Atchakangouen. By 1846, most of the Miami had been forcefully displaced to Indian Territory. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma are the federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States. The Miami Nation of Indiana, a nonprofit organization of self-identified descendants of Miamis who were exempted from removal, have unsuccessfully sought separate recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potawatomi</span> Native American people of the Great Plains

The Potawatomi, also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie, are a Native American people of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. The Potawatomi call themselves Neshnabé, a cognate of the word Anishinaabe. The Potawatomi are part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa (Ottawa). In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi are considered the "youngest brother". Their people are referred to in this context as Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and refers to the council fire of three peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tecumseh's War</span> 1810–1813 conflict between the US and Tecumsehs Confederacy

Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's Confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. Although the war is often considered to have climaxed with William Henry Harrison's victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, Tecumseh's War essentially continued into the War of 1812 and is frequently considered a part of that larger struggle. The war lasted for two more years, until 1813, when Tecumseh and his second-in-command, Roundhead, died fighting Harrison's Army of the Northwest at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada, near present-day Chatham, Ontario, and his confederacy disintegrated. Tecumseh's War is viewed by some academic historians as the final conflict of a longer-term military struggle for control of the Great Lakes region of North America, encompassing a number of wars over several generations, referred to as the Sixty Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patoka River</span>

The Patoka River is a 167-mile-long (269 km) tributary of the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana in the United States. It drains a largely rural area of forested bottomland and agricultural lands among the hills north of Evansville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Ouiatenon</span>

Fort Ouiatenon, built in 1717, was the first fortified European settlement in what is now Indiana, United States. It was a palisade stockade with log blockhouse used as a French trading post on the Wabash River located approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette. The name 'Ouiatenon' is a French rendering of the name in the Wea language, waayaahtanonki, meaning 'place of the whirlpool'. It was one of three French forts built during the 18th century in what was then New France, later the Northwest Territory and today the state of Indiana, the other two being Fort Miami and Fort Vincennes. A substantial French settlement grew up around the fort in the mid-18th century. It was ceded to the British and abandoned after the French and Indian war. Later, it passed into Indian hands and was destroyed in 1791 by American militia during the Northwest Indian War. It was never a U.S. fort. The original site was rediscovered in the 1960s; the archaeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Harrison, Indiana</span> War of 1812 era stockade located in the modern city of Terre Haute, Indiana

Fort Harrison was a War of 1812 era stockade constructed in Oct. 1811 on high ground overlooking the Wabash River on a portion of what is today the modern city of Terre Haute, Indiana, by forces under command of Gen. William Henry Harrison. It was a staging point for Harrison to encamp his forces just prior to the Battle of Tippecanoe a month later. The fort was the site of a famous battle in the War of 1812, the siege of Fort Harrison in Sept. 1812 that was the first significant victory for the U.S. in the war. The fort was abandoned in 1818 as the frontier moved westward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of St. Mary's (1818)</span> 1818 treaties between the United States and Native Americans

The Treaty of St. Mary's may refer to one of six treaties concluded in fall of 1818 between the United States and Natives of central Indiana regarding purchase of Native land. The treaties were

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)</span> 1809 treaty between the United States and Native Americans

The Treaty of Fort Wayne, sometimes called the Ten O'clock Line Treaty or the Twelve Mile Line Treaty, is an 1809 treaty that obtained 29,719,530 acres of Native American land for the settlers of Illinois and Indiana. The negotiations primarily involved the Delaware tribe but included other tribes as well. However, the negotiations excluded the Shawnee, who were minor inhabitants of the area and had previously been asked to leave by Miami War Chief Little Turtle. Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison negotiated the treaty with the tribes. The treaty led to a war with the United States begun by Shawnee leader Tecumseh and other dissenting tribesmen in what came to be called "Tecumseh's War".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Indiana</span> Geographic and cultural region of Indiana, United States

Northern Indiana is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern third of the U.S. state of Indiana and borders the states of Illinois to the west, Michigan to the north, and Ohio to the east. Spanning the state's northernmost 26 counties, its main population centers include Northwest Indiana, Michiana, and the Fort Wayne metropolitan area.

Ouiatenon was a dwelling place of members of the Wea tribe of Native Americans. The name Ouiatenon, also variously given as Ouiatanon, Oujatanon, Ouiatano or other similar forms, is a French rendering of a term from the Wea dialect of the Miami-Illinois language which means "place of the people of the whirlpool", an ethnonym for the Wea. Ouiatenon can be said to refer generally to any settlement of Wea or to their tribal lands as a whole, though the name is most frequently used to refer to a group of extinct settlements situated together along the Wabash River in what is now western Tippecanoe County, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Indiana</span> Overview of the geography of Indiana

The geography of Indiana comprises the physical features of the land and relative location of U.S. State of Indiana. Indiana is in the north-central United States and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Michigan to the north and northeast, Illinois to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Ohio to the east. The entire southern boundary is the Ohio River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow River (Indiana)</span> River in Indiana, United States

The Yellow River is a 62.3-mile-long (100.3 km) tributary of the Kankakee River in the Central Corn Belt Plains ecoregion, located in northern Indiana in the United States. Via the Kankakee and Illinois rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 427 square miles (1,110 km2).

Tippecanoe is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Tippecanoe Township, Marshall County, Indiana, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian removals in Indiana</span> Removal of native tribes from Indiana

Indian removals in Indiana followed a series of the land cession treaties made between 1795 and 1846 that led to the removal of most of the native tribes from Indiana. Some of the removals occurred prior to 1830, but most took place between 1830 and 1846. The Lenape (Delaware), Piankashaw, Kickapoo, Wea, and Shawnee were removed in the 1820s and 1830s, but the Potawatomi and Miami removals in the 1830s and 1840s were more gradual and incomplete, and not all of Indiana's Native Americans voluntarily left the state. The most well-known resistance effort in Indiana was the forced removal of Chief Menominee and his Yellow River band of Potawatomi in what became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death in 1838, in which 859 Potawatomi were removed to Kansas and at least forty died on the journey west. The Miami were the last to be removed from Indiana, but tribal leaders delayed the process until 1846. Many of the Miami were permitted to remain on land allotments guaranteed to them under the Treaty of St. Mary's (1818) and subsequent treaties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tecumseh's confederacy</span> 19th century Native American confederation in the Great Lakes region

Tecumseh's confederacy was a confederation of indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of North America that began to form in the early 19th century around the teaching of Tenskwatawa, called The Prophet by his followers. The confederation grew over several years and came to include several thousand warriors. Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the brother of The Prophet, developed into the leader of the group as early as 1808. Together, they worked to unite the various tribes against the European settlers who had been crossing the Appalachian Mountains and settling on their land.

References

  1. ↑ Hodgin, Cyrus (1903). "The Naming of Indiana" (PDF transcription). Papers of the Wayne County, Indiana, Historical Society. 1 (1): 3–11. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  2. ↑ Tanner, Helen Horbeck; Cartography by Miklos Pinther; Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, The Civilizations of American Indian Series, The Newberry Library; University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, (27th printing);1987
  3. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 92.
  4. ↑ Edmunds, R. David (1978). The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 229. ISBN   9780806120690.
  5. ↑ McDonald, Daniel; The History of Lake Maxinkuckee; The Maxinkuckee Lake Association; Levey Bro's & Co., Inc., Indianapolis; 1905
  6. ↑ Elkhart County Interim Report; 2nd Edition, Published September 2005
  7. ↑ History of Elkhart County, Indiana (https://archive.org/details/historyofelkhart00inchic). Chas. C. Chapman Co. 1881. pp. 655 (https://archive.org/details/historyofelkhart00inchic/page/655).
  8. ↑ Dits, Joseph (2017-04-26). "Osceola park finds life after devil-ish past: Ferrettie-Baugo surprises hikers and paddlers". South Bend Tribune.
  9. ↑ Baker, Ronald L. (1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press. ISBN   9780253328663.
  10. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 86.
  11. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 90.
  12. ↑ McCafferty, Michael (2008). Native American Place-Names of Indiana. University of Illinois Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN   9780252032684.
  13. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 15.
  14. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 113.
  15. ↑ Miami County Interim Report, Published September 1998
  16. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 67.
  17. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 62.
  18. ↑ "Iroquois Township, Newton County, Indiana" (https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3::NO::P3_FID:0453428). Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  19. ↑ McCafferty, Michael (April 29, 2018). "Native American Place Names of Indiana". University of Illinois Press. Retrieved April 29, 2018 – via Google Books.
  20. ↑ McDonald, Daniel (1908). A Twentieth Century History of Marshall County, Indiana (https://book s.google.com/books?id=w0PWAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA36). Lewis Publishing Company. p. 36
  21. ↑ Edmunds 1978, p. 149.
  22. ↑ Forest County Potawatomi Community. Potawatomi Dictionary. p. 277. ISBN   9780578142838.
  23. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 208 n.46.
  24. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 81.
  25. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 82.
  26. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 163.
  27. ↑ "Metea [To Sulk]". Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  28. ↑ De Witt Clinton Goodrich & Charles Richard Tuttle (1875). An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana. Indiana: R. S. Peale & co. p. 578.
  29. ↑ McCafferty 2008, pp. 4–5.
  30. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 107.
  31. ↑ Godfroy, Clarence (1987) [1961]. Miami Indian Stories. Winona Lake, IN: Life and Life Press. p. 164.
  32. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 16.
  33. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 119.
  34. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 120.
  35. ↑ Jyoti A. Verderame (2021). "Monon Trail" . Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  36. ↑ C.C. James (1905). "The Origin of 'Napanee'" (PDF). Papers and Records. 6. Ontario Historical Society: 47–49.
  37. ↑ Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States (https://books.google. com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA344). University of Oklahoma Press. p. 344. ISBN   978-0-8061-3598-4. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
  38. ↑ 8. Baker, Ronald L. (October 1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History (https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake). Indiana University Press. p. 253 (https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake/page/253). ISBN   978-0-253-32866-3. "The name is for the famous Seminole chief."
  39. 1 2 McCafferty 2008, p. 144.
  40. ↑ "Bloodroot Trail" (PDF). Indiana State Parks and Reservoirs. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  41. ↑ Godfroy, Clarence (1987) [1961]. Miami Indian Stories. Winona Lake, IN: Life and Life Press. p. 166.
  42. ↑ McCafferty 2008, pp. 104–105.
  43. ↑ Fountain County Interim Report, Published March 1988
  44. ↑ "Shipshewana History", Retrieved on March 24, 2013.
  45. ↑ Bright, William (2004). Native American placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 496. ISBN   978-0-8061-3598-4 . Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  46. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 122.
  47. ↑ Kosciusko County Interim Report, Published March 1991
  48. ↑ Carroll County Interim Report, Published February 1980
  49. ↑ Tippecanoe County Interim Report, Published May 1990
  50. ↑ McCafferty 2008, pp. 12–13.
  51. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 133-134.
  52. ↑ Hay, Jerry M (2008). "Wabash River guide book", pg. 26, Indiana Waterways. ISBN   1-60585-215-5.
  53. ↑ Fountain County Interim Report, Published March 1988
  54. ↑ Jay County Interim Report, Published July 1985
  55. ↑ Tippecanoe County Interim Report, Published May 1990
  56. ↑ Baker, Ronald L. (October 1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press. p. 336. ISBN   978-0-253-32866-3. ...suggested changing the name to Wakarusa for a stream or a place in Kansas, where he had once lived.
  57. ↑ Werner, Matthew A. (2020). "Wanatah, Indiana: Knee Deep in Mud?". Dig the Dunes. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  58. ↑ Lilly, Eli. Early Wawasee Days. Indianapolis: Studio Press Inc., 1960.
  59. ↑ Tippecanoe County Interim Report, Published May 1990
  60. ↑ McCafferty 2008, p. 89.
  61. ↑ Pulaski county Indiana history (http://www.countyhistory.com/pulaski/start.html)
  62. ↑ Baker, Ronald L. (October 1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History (https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake). Indiana University Press. p. 353 (https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake/page/n370). ISBN   978-0-253-32866-3. "...named for the nearby Wyandotte caves."
  63. ↑ McCafferty 2008, pp. 63–64.
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