Welcome to our Native information page.

Here you will find descriptions and details of various Native American icons and symbols, crafts and traditions.

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Native Words Used In The English Language

Early explorers and settlers discovered many things in their everyday lives that were strange and unknown. The easiest way to refer to these items would have been to ask the local indiginous population for their words. Many of these words remain today;

Animals

Caribou (Micmac)

Chipmunk (Ojibwa)

 

Moose (Algonquian)

Raccoon (Algonquian)

Skunk (Algonquian)

Food

Squash (Natick)

Pecan (Algonquian)

Hominy (Algonquian)

Succotash (Narraganset)

People

Papoose (Narraganset)

Mugwump (Natick)

Things

Moccasin (Chippewa)

Toboggan (Algonquian)

Tomahawk (Algonquian)

Wigwam (Abenaki)

Tipi (Dakota)

Hickory (Algonquian)

Kayak (Inuit)

Totem (Ojibwa)

Places/States

Certain place names evoked a sense of poetry to some people including William Penn, who did not know "...a language spoken in Europe that hath words of more sweetness and greatness."

Four of the five Great Lakes and 28, more than half, of the the states in America have names that were borrowed from Native American words. They are:

Alabama - Indian for tribal town, later a tribe (Alabamas or Alibamons) of the Creek Confederacy.

Alaska - Russian version of Aleutian (Eskimo) word, alakashak, "peninsula", "great lands", or "land that is not an island".

Arizona - Spanish version of Pima Indian word for "little spring place", or Aztec arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing".

Arkansas - French varient of Quapaw, a Siouan people meaning "downstream people".

Connecticut - From Mohican and other Algonquian words meaning "long river place".

Delaware - Named for Lord De La Warr, early govenor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape), and the state.

Hawaii - Possibly derived from Native word for homeland, Hawaiki or Owhyhee.

Idaho - A coined name with an invented Indian meaning: "gem of the mountains;" originally suggested for the Pike's Peak mining territory (Colorado), then applied to the new mining territory 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, Algonquian word meaning men or warriors.

Indiana - Means "land of the indians".

Iowa -  Indian word variously translated as "one who puts to sleep" or "beautiful land".

Kansas - Sioux word for "south wind people".

Kentucky - Indian word translated as "dark and bloody ground", "meadow land" and "land of tomorrow".

Massachusetts - From an Indian tribe named after "large hill place" identified by Captain John Smith as being near Milton, Mass.

Michigan - From the Chippewa words mica gama meaning "great water", after the lake of the same name.

Minnesota - From the Dakota Sioux word meaning "cloudy water" or "sky-tinted water" of the Minnesota River.

Mississippi - Probably Chipewa; mici zibi, "great river" or "gathering -in of all the watewrs". Also: Algonquian word, "Messipi".

Missouri - An algonquian Indian term meaning "river of the big canoes".

Nebraska - From the Omaha or Otos Indian word meaning "broad water" or "flat river", describing the Platte River.

North & South Dakota - Dakota is Sioux for friend or ally.

Ohio - Iroquois for "fine good river".

Oklahoma - Choctaw coined word meaning red man, proposed by Rev. Allen Wright, Choctaw-speaking Indian, said: "Okla humma is red people".

Tennessee - Tanasi was the name of Cherokee villages on the Little Tennessee River. From 1784 to 1788 this was theState Franklin, or Frankland.

Texas - Varient of the word used by Caddo and other Indians meaning friends or allies, and applied to them by the Spanish in eastern Texas. Also written texias, tejas, teysas.

Utah - From a Navajo word meaning upper, or higher up, as applied to a Shoshone tribe called Ute.

Wisconsin - An Indian name, spelt Ouisconsin and Mesconsing by early chroniclers. Believed to mean "grassy place" in Chippewa. Congress made it Wisconsin. 

Wyoming - The word was taken from Wyoming valley, PA, which was the site of an Indian massacre and became widely known by Campbell's poem, "Gertrude of Wyoming". In Algonquian it means "large prarie place".

 

 

Kokopelli

This folk character is mostly known by his physical features; a hunched back and feathers on his head.

As the story goes, Kokopelli was a trader who travelled among various pueblos and the hump on his back suggests a backpack. Many people speculate he played a flute to announce his arrival, a tool also used for teaching songs and in ceremonies. 

He symbolises fertility. Inter-breeding that's too close results in genetic mutations and unhealthy offspring. Thus, his involvement with different tribal communities assured a successful crop of new life.

 

Totem Poles

The totem pole is most often associated with the tribes    of the Northwest.

A totem or animal was said to possess various characteristics and these would be linked to the family or clan. The poles were used to identify the house of the clan leader and were sometimes used to mark a grave.

The wooden poles would show animals, fish, birds and creatures from tales and legends. The totem carvers were highly skilled craftsmen.

  

 

DID YOU KNOW?

A wampum was an important piece of Native culture. Made from polished shell or glass and then bound together to form a belt or strands, the wampum was a historical archive, a trading item, and a method of communication. If a red belt was given at a peace conference it meant war. White meant peace.