I’d advise anyone who is thinking about taking a summer out before work to spend it in ‘At or about the great hill’. Or Massachusetts to you and me!
You see, we all know more Native American language than we thought.
But imagine if somebody came to your country and changed all the names of the places which the settlers did.
AIANTA, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, have got us on board for their initiative Mapping Indigenous Place Names.
Where is..?
Now as the United States took shape and they formed new settlements they went for names from the Old World and then just put New in front of them.
Some though were more inventive and took Native American names.
So, let’s play a game of what does that American state mean?
Rivers run through it
Starting with A, of course, and Alaska is from the Aleut word alexsxaq, meaning ‘the object towards which the action of the sea is directed’.
K is for Kentucky, a hallowed place in American Country music, is Iroquoian for ‘at the meadow’ or ‘on the prairie’.
While Michigan who we met up again with this week at MTM21 and are close to welcoming us all back, nods to the Ottawa mishigami, ‘large water.’
Our magical Mississippi, whose old man river just keeps rolling, is derived from the Algonquian language Ojibwe. meaning ‘big river’…
And yes, there’s a theme here.
Utah, another we caught up with at MTM21 and where we’ll visit after the American Travel Fair, IPW, means ‘high up’. Naturally!
Follow the trail
When we all get travelling again we should definitely add Native American experiences to our lengthening list.
Helpfully AIANTA has done the heavy lifting for us and pointed these information packs our way.
Top Ten Experiences: https://www.aianta.org/ten-native-american-tourism-experiences/
Pre-Columbian Sites: https://www.aianta.org/pre-columbian-sites-in-the-us/
Native American Tours: https://www.aianta.org/native-american-tours/.
Must fly, I’m being called back to ‘the Place Where The Scary One Breathes Fire’, sometimes called ‘Home’.
