What indigenous
place names tell us
Alabama, Alaska, Algonquin, Allegheny, Apache,
Apalachee, Appalachian, Appomattox, Arizona, Arkansas, Biloxi,
Calumet, Calusa, Canada, Caribou, Cayuga, Chatanooga, Chautauqua,
Chepanoc, Cherokee, Chesapeake, Cheyenne, Chicago, Chickasaw, Clatsop,
Colusa, Comanche, Connecticut, Cree, Dakota, Delaware, Detroit,
Erie, Hialeah, Hiawatha, Hopi, Huron, Idaho, Illinois, Inyo, Iowa,
Iroquois, Kansas, Kenosha, Kentucky, Klondike, Lillooet, Malibu,
Maliseet, Manhattan, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Merrimac, Metoac,
Miami, Miccosukee, Michigan, Micmac, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Modoc, Mohawk, Mohegan, Mohican, Monache, Montauk, Muscogee,
Nakota, Nanaimo, Nantucket, Napa, Narragansett, Naugatuck, Navajo,
Nebraska, Niagara, Norwalk, Ohio, Okanagan, Okeechobee, Oklahoma,
Omaha, Omak, Oneida, Ontario, Oregon, Orono, Ottawa, Palouse, Pataha,
Pawnee, Pennacook, Pennamaquan, Pensacola, Penticton, Peoga, Peoria,
Peotone, Pequot, Poconos, Pontiac, Potomac, Poughkeepsie, Quebec,
Roanoke, Sarasota, Saratoga, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Savannah,
Sawhatchee, Scituate, Seattle, Sebago, Sequoia, Seminole, Sewanee,
Shannock, Shawnee, Shenandoah, Shetucket, Shoshone, Sioux, Sonoma,
Spokane, Squamish, Sunapee, Susquehanna, Tacoma, Taconic, Tahoe,
Tallahassee, Tampa, Tecumseh, Tennessee, Texas, Ticonderoga, Topeka,
Toronto, Tucson, Tuscaloosa, Tuscarora, Tuskegee, Utah, Wabash,
Waco, Walla Walla, Wallowa, Wanakit, Wasco, Waupaca, Wenatchee,
Wichita, Winnebago, Winnimac, Winnipeg, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yosemite,
Yukon, Yuma – what
language do these sonorous names speak? What message do they convey
to us?
Indigenous names, vestiges of the first nations
who lived and prospered in the rich lands of the Americas. Anthropologists
estimate that some ten million human beings resided in North America
when their lands were “discovered” by the Europeans.
This vast continent was theirs, full of villages, wigwams, laughter
and life.
Where are these people now? Where have they all
gone? Gone and forgotten, blown with the wind and the clouds.
What does Chapultepec, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu
and Tikal tell us? That south of the Rio Grande the continent
was populated by millions of human beings, perhaps as many as
60 million. Their land was not terra nullius. We can
still recognize the Aztec, the Maya, the Inca, the Quechua in
the populations of Central and South America. From the writings
of the Dominican friars Bartolomé de las Casas and Antonio de
Montesinos we have learned that the Arawacs, the Siboneyes and
Tainos were massacred and enslaved. How many indigenous lives were
deliberately extinguished by the European colonizers (migrants
with the sword)? How many died or disease and deprivation? Ten
million? Twenty?
The “Christianization" of Latin America
and the Anglo-Saxon policy of “manifest destiny” constituted
perhaps the greatest demographic catastrophe in the long history
of mankind
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