The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-17
neaning a STREAM having several large

meaning a stream having several larg,
bends
In the nomenclature of gunbc ats, ant
of such yachts and tugs as have beer
converted into vessels of this class, tbs
navy department has selected a few
names of Indian origin. Thus, the name
of the gunboat MachiaS $50 called af.
ter a town ON the coast of Maine) rep
resents the word Matsiess, or lazy
bird" the Passamaquoddy name fol
the partridge or rGffed grouse. The
armed tug Wampatuck bears the name
5, by which the Canada goose was known
to the Massachusetts and Narragan-
sett Indians. The tug Osceola is sc
called after famous Seminole war
rior, whose. name. correctly spelled
was Assiyahola, or ''Black Drink
Shouter"
We now come to the most important
part of the navy, that constituted by
the battleships, which. as we'll known
1 are by. law christeHed after the states
4 of the Union. OF this class of vessels
thus far called after states having
Massachusetts, and Iowa, now in. COM
mission, and the Kentucky, Wisconsin
and Alabama, under construction
The name of the state borne by the
frst-named of these vessels had, like
that of many other states, a local orig
in. 1t began with Tachies, the name of
a Caddoan tribe which formerly lived
upon an affiuent of the Sabine river.
This tribal name changed to Tachus
and Texas, and finally TO Texas, which
was first applied, in the latter form, to
a prairie called Bradshaw Place, on
the east bank. of the Neches river, and
was afterward extended to the entire
territory now embraced in the state so
called.
Z fl,n
Quincy that gave the state of MaSsa-
chusetts its name. These were known
to the Indians as Massadchuash, or
great hills a word which, with the
local SuffiX, becomes Massadchuashet,
meaning lat the great hills" The ter
minal in the present form of the word is
the sign of the English plural, and is
suDerfiuous.
Much research has been wasted in
the attempt to ascertain the meaning
of the state name borne by the battle.
ship Iowa. The state derives its name
from Siouan ribe which lived on the
Des Moines river, and called itself Pa
joha, or Gray. Snow but to which
some of its neighbors gave a name that
has been variously spelled Aiaoue, Ay-
way, Ahyahwah, Ahwahhaway Iaway
ETC., and, until the organization of the
territory in 1888, Ioway. The Indian
language to which this word belonged
(and consequently, its meaning) has not
been determined.
The battleship Wisconsin will do duty
under name which has been inter-
preted strong stream" and wild,
rushing river" The state so called de-
rives its name, it is true. from the larg-
est river which interSenctS 1.-THE Ouis-
consing, as the word was formerly and
properly spelled. Ouisconsing, however,
was not the Indian name of the river.
but of a locality. In the Otchipwe dia-
lect, to which the word belongs, ouis-
kons is the name for a small lodge of
a beaver or musquaSh and this, with
the local suffix. becomes Wiskonsing,
at the small lodge of a beaver or mus
quash.' The stream itself was called
by the same Indians Ouiskonsisibi, or
beaver Cor musquash) lodge river"
Such transferences of aboriginal names
are very common in our geographical !
Although the phrase dark and bloody |
ground is generally accepted to be the |
meaning Of the name Kentucky, such |
is not the case. Nor does this word sig |
nifty, in the language of the Shawnees, !
the head of the river" as has been |
stated Most of the land embraced in |
the territory called Kentucky was |
claimed and sold by the Six Nations, !
and the true origin of the name, as |
suggested by Fathers Marcoux and |
Cuoq, is, doubtless, to be found in the |
IroQuoian word Kentake, meaning at |
the prairie land"
The battleship Illinois will sail under
what may be called a. hybrid name,
of an Indian word with a
French plural sufdx, The state so
called assumed, upon its organization,
the name of a territory that had long
been mapped out as the illinois coun-
French lie Pays des Illinois," from
had been met by Fathers
Allouez and Marquette, while they were
aboring. respectively, among the Ditch
pwes and Ottawas, and who spoke a
lialect slightly different from that of
he later Thus, while in Otchipwe
md Ottawa the term for man" (or
more accurately speaking, individual of
he native" or common" type) was
mini, the same word in the more south
,rly dialect was Ilini, from which the
Tesuits, with the addition of the French
plural suffix, made the distinctive name +
Illinois, which, at that period of the
French language in which it was first
Used, was pronounced u-ee-nay
The battleship recently launched and
Alabama bears a name
which was that of Muskhogean people
Alibamu; plural, Alibamalgi), and the
meaning of which is not known, even
o the remnants of the tribe now living.
some one long ago inter
)reted the word as there we rest" and
he state of Alabama adopted the
phrase as its motto.