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.
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.[1]
- 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
- Rosalie - Named for Rosalie La Flesche, a daughter of Omaha chief Joseph La Flesche.[2]
- 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.
- Waco - Named after Waco, Texas, which is the name of one of the divisions of the Tawokoni whose village stood on the site of Waco, Texas.
- 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
References
- ^ "Profile for Hyannis, Massachusetts". ePodunk. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Lilian Linder A.M. (1925) Nebraska Place-Names. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism. p 140.
Bibliography
- Fitzpatrick, Lilian Linder A.M. (1925) Nebraska Place-Names. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism. p 140.
- Fontenelle, Henry. (1885) Indian Names of Streams and Localities. Translations and reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society, vol. 1, p. 76, 1885.
- Gilmore, Melvin R. (1919) Some Indian Place Names in Nebraska. Nebraska State Historical Society, vol. 19, pp. 130-139.