St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-21


the French and the Spanish. With all
our o for, and admiration of. the
American pioneer, we must admit that
he could not as a general thing be
called 4 man Of culture, and especially
was he not n linguiSt? In n%inety-nine
cases out CT every hundred he could NOT
speak his avn language without dis
turning Lindley Murray in his coffin.
so these French and Spanish names
stood n very poor chance OF being per-
petnated in their purity through his
agency.
Will now give you some instances of
the utter annihilation of such names in
our W state. There is Il river in the
southern portion of Minnesota which
was III the early days OF Indian trade
navigable for Mackinac boats and
canoes, and was much used. The
navigation. however. was difficult and
embarrassing. which gave il the name,
h: the FrencA voyageur, of ia Riviere
DIES embarras." or the difficult river.
Now the voyageur was usually Il
halt breed Indian. and if Il pure French
man spoke the Sioux language. which
has many cultural sounds, which tinct-
ured his Freich. He usually spoke
very rapidly. and made all the short
ci:lS he could TO the end he desired.
When speaking of this river he always
called it ''Des embarras," which,
spoken quickly with 4 cultural III.
donation, gave the American settler the
word "Zunbro," and thus we have on
our maps Il Zumbro river and il town Of
Zumbruta.
Quite as curious and equally as effect
i've an instance for the destruction of Il
nam | will relate in connection with
Lake Superior. Most Of you will re-
member Tue curiouS formation at Du-
luth called Minnesota point. 1t is a
long finger of land projected from the
Minnesota shore towards the Wisconsin
side Il distance of some nine miles to-
wards the natural outlet of the ST. Louis
river into the lake. Ii is composed en-
lireiy Of pebbles thrown up from the
bottom OF the lake and held in place by
The current OF the ST. Louis river meet
Ing the WASH of the lake. aud presents a
very curious and interesting subject for
the scientist.
Now. out in the lake somewhere,
similar influences threw up a small
island of The sa!ne material. which was
III all early day Qul;e dangerous to
navigation. The French word for a
pebble of this character is ''gallet." So
the French called this island Isle au
boIlCtS, VI tue lSlutlu VI pGDDlGS. LII
the early days OF lake navigation the
sailors m pilots were principally
Canadian Frenchmen, and III speaking
the name of the island quickly it was
caught by the Americans as ''Skillt-
gallee." and it has actually passed into
the United States charts as 'Skille-
galIee."
There is n town in Wisconsin on the
MISSISSIPPI river called "Trempaaleau."
1t derives its name from a cOnical bluff
near the present site of the town, which
III very high water is surrounded and
becomes an island. The French called
1t l. Aiontaigne qui trempe a Ieau"-
mountain which is dipped i'll the water.
The lame of the town is wonderfully
well personal---very. much better than
IN o cases-but l venture the asser-
ton that not all inhabitant of it knows
the origin of its name. unless he is Il
FreIchman.
RIVER INCIDENTS.
l must relate a little circumstance
connected with this town that occurred
agood many years ago in the days of
river travel. L was coming up the river
on a steamboat, aud, as the day was
fine, [ was sitting ON the hurricane
deck. The boats were full of tourists
in those days. all anxious for informa-
ton. The pr0prletors Of the town had
put up a large sign to attract attention,
with n word, "Trempealeau." A lady
asked the captain in my presence what
that meant and where it came from. He
looked wise and said, Madam, it is
Winnebago." She was perfectly salts
fed, and l did not correct the informa-
ton, which she probably recorded i'll
her diary and communicated to her
Eastern friends. l have not as yet seen
it in any authentic history. but will be
not at all surprised to find it Tiers some
day.
To give you a further idea of the
knowledge of the river captains in
those days, l will relate a little incident
which occurred on the upper Missouri
once when | was ascending that stream
in a boat called. the "Twilight." On
the jackstatf Of this boat was a flag
bearing the sign OF a crescent moon,
with a star perched on one of it's horns.
1t was pretty, and attracted my atten-
ton. An opportunity occurred one
night which opened the way to my ask
Ing the captain the meaning of his
legend. 1t was the curious coincidence
of exactly the same sign appearing in
the heavens. l suppose it was the
preparation for the occultation ofVenuS;
at any rate. the signs were Identical. l
called the captains attention to it and
asked HIM what his flag signified. He
carefully scanned the heavens, studied
the flag, and Solemnly announced: at
is a sign of rain"
Ii under such educational influences
anything OF the past re mains, it will be
a miracle.
The gentlemen who laid out the town
OF Minnesota down the river in this
state wrote to me for the name OF
white Water" in SiouX,a they wished
to name the town after the White Water
river. which empties into the Mississippi
IN that nelghborhood. | wrote the name
"MInne-Ska-ska," white water. They
muiled over it, and concluded that If
ever a railroad went through the town
the brakemen could not manage that
name successfully. and called it by the
more ~euphonious name of Minnesota,
which means nothing at all.
Then there is Mankato, which is a
corruption Of "M~a-ka-to," or Blue
Earth.
AMONG II INDIANS.
L passed several years among the
Sioux Indians of this country, and was
at one time United States Indian agent
for them, so i naturally picked up some
of their language, aud learned their
ways and customs.
An aboriginal people like these saw
ages have very few wants. and onse-
quently their language is very meager
in its means OF expression. Therefore.
when new objects were presented
TO them, in order to talk about
them among themselves. they had to
find names for them, and such names
would, in the nature of things, be de-
scriptive. When they first saw a white
man, he was a Frenchman. They called
him "Wa-She-Cha." or the white man.
The next appearance of the white man
was the American soldier. The officers
always carried a sword. The Indian