Indian Place-Names; Their Origin, Evolution, and Meanings, Collected in Kansas from the Siouan, Algonquian, Shoshonean, Caddoan, Iroquoian, and Other Tongues

John Rydjord

ISBN 10: 080611763X / ISBN 13: 9780806117638

Published by University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 1968

About this Item

University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1968. Softcover/Trade Wraps. 3rd Printing by Line Number. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: As New. No DJ. Printed card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is not creased or split; text is secure in binding. 380 pp 8vo. The great variety of Indian place-names in Kansas resulted from attempts to create a permanent Indian frontier in the West. The study of place-names has many facets-linguistics, geography, legends, literature and folklore. The author has grouped the names into chapters based mainly on tribes or linguistic families and treated the names in their historical context, delving into the circumstances that caused them to be given to each political and topographical feature and including a variety of interpretations. A clean very presentable copy.

Seller Inventory # 008910

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Indian Place-Names; Their Origin, Evolution, and Meanings, Collected in Kansas from the Siouan, Algonquian, Shoshonean, Caddoan, Iroquoian, and Other Tongues
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
• Publication Date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080611763X
• ISBN 13: 9780806117638
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 3rd Printing
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Indian Wars/American Indian Matters
  • Kansas Related

About this title

Synopsis

The great variety of Indian place-names in Kansas resulted from attempts to create a permanent American Indian frontier in the West. Beyond Missouri and Arkansas lay the Great American Desert, and Indians from the East were urged to settle there, supposedly free from the white man’s appetite for land. Consequently, Kansas has Indian place-names not only from its early Native inhabitants (Siouan, Caddoan, and Shoshonean peoples) but also from the Algonquians, Iroquois, and other eastern tribes, and even a few groups of Indigenous peoples from the West.
 
The study of place-names has many facets—linguistics, geography, legends, literature, and folklore. Avoiding the straitjacket of purely linguistic treatment, John Rydjord groups the place-names into chapters based mainly on tribes or linguistic families. He treats the names in their historical context, delving into the circumstances that caused them to be given to each political and topographical feature and including a variety of interpretations, even contradictions.

About the Author

John Rydjord (1893–1994) was Professor of History and Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School, Wichita State University. He wrote several books and many articles on the history of Mexico and the American West.