List of place names in Nebraska of Native American origin

This is a list of Native American place names in the U.S. state of Nebraska.

Main article: List of placenames of indigenous origin in the Americas

State

• Nebraska - The name of the state is derived from an Omaha name meaning "flat water." In the Omaha language the name is Nibthaska; ni, water, and bthaska, flat.

Counties

• Red Willow - A mistranslation of the Dakota name "Chan-shasha Wakpala", which literally means Red Dogwood Creek, this shrub being abundant along its banks.
• Cheyenne
• Dakota
• Loup - Named for the Skidi Pawnee, whose name means "wolf", which in French is loup.
• Nemaha
• Otoe
• Pawnee
• Sioux
• Keya Paha - Means "turtle hill", is descriptive of the small hills in its vicinity.

Towns and cities

• Anoka - A Dakota Indian word meaning "on both sides."
• Arapahoe
• Birdwood - A translation of the Dakota name Zintka-cham Wakpala for the because the birdwood shrub (Amorpha fruticosa) commonly grows along the stream.
• Battle Creek - Named after a nearby stream where Nebraska volunteer militiamen were prepared to fight a battle against the Pawnee Indians that never happened.
• Barada - Named after Antoine Barada, a French-Omaha settler on the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation.
• Blackbird - Blackbird is the English translation of the name Wash-ing-guhsah-ba, or Chief Blackbird of the Omahas who lived and died in the vicinity.
• Brule - Named after the Brule tribe of the Teton Sioux.
• Fontenelle
• Hyannis - Named after Hyannis, Massachusetts, which was named after Iyannough, a sachem of the Cummaquid tribe.
• Leshara
• Lodgepole - Named after a nearby creek that is named after a literal translation of the Dakota name, Tushu Wakpala.
• Mankota - Mankota is from the Dakota Indian word Ma-ka'-to, meaning blue earth. Named for Mankato, Minnesota.
• Minatare
• Monowi - Meaning "flower", this town was so named because there were so many wild flowers growing in the vicinity.
• Nehawka - An approximation to the Omaha and Otoe Indian name of a nearby creek.
• Nemaha
• Niobrara - The Omaha and Ponca word for spreading water or spreading river.
• Oconee - Named for Oconee, Illinois. Oconee was the name of a Creek town.
• Oconto - A Menominee word meaning the "place of the pickerel." Named for Oconto, Wisconsin.
• Ogallala - named for the Oglala people.
• Omaha
• Osceola
• Leshara. Named after Petalesharo, a Pawnee chief.
• Pohocco - A precinct in the northeastern part of Saunders county, the name derives from Pahuk, meaning headland or promontory, the Pawnee name of a prominent hill in the vicinity.
• Ponca
• Red Cloud
• Santee
• Sioux
• St. Deroin - A ghost town on the former Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation founded by a French-Omaha settler who was killed near his trading post along the Missouri River.
• Tecumseh
• Tekamah - Located on the site of a historic Pawnee village, the surrounding hills were used for burying grounds and the highest point was used as a fire signal station. The origin of the name is not definitely known.
• Tonawanda - Named for Tonawanda, New York.
• Unidilla - An Iroquois word meaning "place of meeting." Named after Unadilla, New York.
• Venango - An eastern Native American name in reference to a figure found on a tree, carved by the Erie.
• Wahoo
• Weeping Water is a translation of the French "L'Eau qui Pleure", and has an interesting Native American legend connected with its name.
• Winnebago
• Wyoming - Derived from a corrupted Delaware word meaning "large plains" or "extensive meadows."
• Yutan - Named for an Otoe chief.

See also

• History of Nebraska

Bibliography

• Beauchamp, William Martin (1906). Aboriginal place names of New York. New York State Education Department, New York State Museum.
• Bright, William (2004). Native American Place Names of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ruttenber, Edward Manning. History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River: their origin, manners and customs, tribal and sub-tribal organizations, wars, treaties, etc., etc. J. Munsell, (1872)
• The Origin of New Jersey Place Names. Federal Writer’s Program of the Work Progress Administration of New Jersey. Reissued by the New Jersey Public Library Commission, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ, 1945. Available Online

External links

Indian Place Names in New Jersey