1-12-21 Final Jeopardy answer brought me here. Strange how so many states, counties, cities, streets and other geographical things were given Native America names, considering how despised NA peoples were throughout American history. I wonder if the namers were fond of the image of the noble pre-European native living in Eden, while hating their then current descendants?
History is more complex than simple reductive statements would indicate.
The relationship between natives and Europeans depended on time and place and circumstances over more than two centuries. At times, the settlers worked closely with the natives and peace and admiration reigned. This would be broken by periods of animosity, true, but these died down as distance grew between the two groups.
At any given time and place, new arrivals might learn what the natives called rivers, hills, lakes, and other natural bodies and use those for mutual comprehension. Here in Upstate New York, where native names abound, natural bodies are far more likely to have native names than towns or other governmental structures. The land was first thickly settled in the 1820s, when Europe was going through a period of democratic fervor and a fad for Greek and Roman traditions swept the country. That led to huge numbers of communities taking Greek and Roman names, including Greece and Rome, but also Utica, Ithaca, Syracuse, and Troy.
Monroe County was named after then President James Monroe, but most of the surrounding counties took native names. The process was often tortuous. Onondaga County is a fine example of a tangled history, in which the final name reflects the people who were kicked off their own land. Was that in honor of them or just a historic relic of a past nobody put in the effort to change?
From what I’ve read of the history of place-naming, this tangled history will be found in thousands of spots in every state. No generalization can handle it. History is like a pointillist painting; thousands of tiny dots coalesce into a picture but only if you stand well back. I don’t think we’re far enough back yet to make the picture cohere.
Last night on Jeopardy the final answer was a Civil War battlefield with a Native American name only 50 miles from Washington DC. Having grown up around there I realized it had to be Antietam, but was doubting myself because it didn’t sound like a Native American name. It is, Algonquin specifically. These names are everywhere, sometimes clear in there origin, sometimes less so, but clearly most of them were just carrying forward the original names of places.
If you’re exploring a place that already has local inhabitants, it makes practical sense to use the local names for lakes and rivers (say) in order to have conversations with the locals.
That wouldn’t explain the abundance of counties and streets with NA names.
I think it makes sense to use the local names for all locations. Come in and steal some land and give it your own name and who’s going to know about it? The original names will tend to have broad recognition before someone renames it. Nothing stopping them from doing it though, there are plenty of Native American place names lost to guys name Johnson and Smith because they happened to have made up some title to the land.
We routinely name places for beings destroyed in order to create those places.
Humans, other animals, trees – this stuff is all over the place. The people who did the naming thought that the people they’d taken the land from were all safely gone (this is often not true.)
I picked a state at random (Illinois). Counties with Native American names:
Iroquois County - named after the Iroquois people
Kankakee County - named after the Kankakee River
Macoupin County - named after Macoupin Creek
Peoria County - named after the Peoria people
Sangamon County - named after the Sangamon River
Wabash County - named after the Wabash River
Winnebago County - named after the Winnebago people
So it seems pretty common to name counties after bodies of water or the people who used to live there.
Heck, we even put a Native American on our five-cent piece, at the very time when we were trying to exterminate them. And of course, just to be consistent, we put a buffalo on the reverse.
I grew up on a street named for Native people who actually lived in the area, but the subdivision also had many streets named after people who lived thousands of miles away. Always thought that was a bit odd.
I currently live in a county (way out west) named after a Northern Civil War Officer who undoubtably never set foot in. Whatever. Everything needs a name, I guess.
I may be getting wooshed here, but e.g. Kankakee itself is derived from an American Indian word, as is Illinois, etc.
Heck, now they are doing it on Mars.
I wonder if that’s the first time NA were ever consulted re: the use of their language. I also wonder if I used re: right in that sentence.
Great book on the topic of place names in the USA: Names On The Land by George R. Stewart
Maybe I’m getting whooshed. Are you saying that Kankakee wasn’t the term Native Americans used for the Kankakee River?
My previous comment was: “it makes practical sense to use the local names for lakes and rivers (say) in order to have conversations with the locals” and then it was suggested that county names are unrelated to river names.
Years ago, National Lampoon had a chart “translating” about a dozen and a half NA topographical names; like this:
(Place) Potomac River - (From) Potomac Indians - (Meaning) “This here river.”
And so on. 
It could have been Manassas or Monocacy as well as Antietam.
I don’t know why Monocacy was not included. I considered Manassas as a possibility but it is the name used by the Confederacy while the Union referred to it as Bull Run, and it turned out not to be included. Two other Civil War battlefields were cited as having Native American names, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, both much further away.
Yes, but the rest of the clue was that 8 U.S. presidents had visited the place.
Thanks, forgot about that part. I just figured it had to be Antietam but never knew it was an Algonquin name.