Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-09-28
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KEEP THE OLD NAMES.

Among the prettiest and most pic
turesaue parts of. the English vocab-
ulary are tbs Indian words which
have been transferred bodily to the
English, or more properly the Amer
lean tongue, and those which are of
French-Indian derivation. There is a
liquid sound to many Of the names, a
quaint descriptive character that can
not be given to the harsher Anglo
Saxon syllables of the everyday
American. In the west and middle
west there are many Of these names.
Ottumwa, (Indian for 8trippling wat
cry being one Of them All these old
adopted names should be kept intact
They add to the beauty of the Ian
guage, give the American" tongue
distinction from the English, and
help to preserve the historical inter-
est in points which are fast being
transformed from nature-spots to busy
marts. OF late, however, some Of the
the whole country have fallen into
the error of mis.spelling several of
these words. the first step in the de-
struction entirely of their identity.
Not long ago a Boston critic in
sisted-llpon spelling Topeka with &C.
instead of the OK He knew nothing
of the Indian derivation or meaning
of the word and gave as his only rea-
son for wanting the change that It
was or seemed to be phonetically cor
rect to use Tie Co instead of the * :.
Thousands of fasteners call Wichita
"Wishita." 1t may be accepted as a
fact that generally the translation of
Indian names is spelled phonetically
and these who live in a community
where the names originated are better
qualified to pronounce them correctly
and spell them correctly than those
who have been accustomed to think
ing of everything west Of the Allie
ghenies as the "far west"
The preservation of the old names
is important. and especially is this
true of the Indian names that are so
easily warped and corrupted. The day
OF the French voyageur and the feath-
cred warrior of the plains is linked to
the present, for
! Gle has left his names behind him,
Adding rich barbaric grace
To the mountains, to the river,
To the fertile meadow-place;
Relics Of the ancient hunter
OF past and vanished race"
Phil E. Chappell. in an interesting
book recently published in which he
gives the history Of the Missouri riv-
er, gives some quaint information re-
lating to the many Spanish and
French names that abound in Mis-
souri,, and refers to many instances of
ridiculous and meaningless corruption
of what were originally beautiful and
significant names. Some Of the uncor-
rupted names that have come down
from the old French couriers-de-bois
are the Marais- Deg ygnes (river or
marsh of swans), Creve-Couer (brok-
en- heart), Cote-sans-des- sein "a hill
without o. cause), Petite-sas (little
| tribe) But there are many unfortu-
nate corruptions that have robbed the
original names of their poetic beauty
For instance, Terre-R eau beautiful
earth) it now hideously contracted to
Tabo Roche-Perce (split rock) is
now Rocheport Bonne-Femme (good
woman) is Bonefam, while Pomme-de.
Terre (fruit of the earth) is now Pom
| Le-Iar.
Mr.. Cha. oell says that when Lewis
and lark came UP the Missouri riv.
er hunter killed bear at the mouth
of a creek not far above ST. Charles
Thus originated Bear creek" called
by the French settlers "L'Our's
creek, the al Ours" meaning bear
Soon thereafter a long-haired Tenne.
seean came along, and not knowing
the meaning of "L'Our's," he called it
Loose creek, which it remains to this
day. Another ridiculous corruption
is that of Bois-Brule, or Burnt
Wood" which is now Bob Ruly.