of Western Indian Tribes, especially the Shoshonis. While

suggestive and not entirely correct, perhaps, yet the theory pre- sented herein appears quite plausible, at least, more so than any previous contribution to this intricate investigation and is possessed with sufficient reasonableness to take the inquiry out of the realm of conjecture and place it in the field of probable historical data.

This word is of Indian origin and therefore its history is regarded as miraculous by many investigators. The meaning of many Indian names now current in American history and geography is grossly perverted because of the shallowness of sentimental inquirers. The inability of many writers to solve the meaning and fully understand the application of Indian words is due to their ignorance of the language and especially the nature of the American Indian. If so disposed we could take the poetical thunder out of many American names, the visionary meanings of which are so ancient that "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary". But "truth is always stranger than fiction". For example, the word "Mississippi" is of Indian origin and is said to mean Father of Waters, an eloquent thought that conveys a certain knowledge which the red man did not possess. The Indian had no fixed names for natural objects; when speaking of them he used descriptive terms, only. Eight-tenths of Indian geographical names were coined on the spot from some particular attribute which was most striking to his mind at the time he bestowed it. There- fore, when asked by the white man, the red man's name of a certain stream or mountain, he designated it by some peculiar characteristic which came to his mind when asked. When the early trapper inquired his name for the Boise river he called it "Wihinast", meaning boiling rapidly, from the chief peculiarity in view at that moment which was an eddy or whirlpool in the river; or while near a mountain peak during a storm as the thunder was making itself manifest, he called it "Tome-up Yaggi", meaning the clouds are crying; in other words "Thunder," giving us the geographical "Thunder Mountain". OREGON MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 319

The Canadian Indians knew that Fathers Allouez, Hennepin, La Salle and Marquette had made tremendous efforts to find and did find and traveled with boats upon the Mississippi river, so when the Chippewas were asked by the French their name for this river replied, as corrupted into French, "Mee- shee See-pee", meaning "Mee-shee", Father, and "See-pee", water, or Father's Water, referring to the Jesuit Fathers and not to the then unknown fact of its being the largest river in the world. 2

The word "Oregon" is derived from a Shoshoni Indian ex- pression meaning, The River of the West, originating from the two Shoshoni words "Ogwa," River and "Pe-on," West, or "Ogwa Pe-on." The Sioux pronounced this word in the more euphonious manner in which we now hear it, a characteristic in which their tongue excels and the Shoshoni "Gwa" under- went, etymologically, a variation in the new language and became changed to "r," thus giving the sonorous word which Jonathan Carver, who first published the name to the English world, heard spoken by them during his visit with the Sioux nation. 3

In the word "Ogwa" the syllable "Og" means undulations and is the basis of such words as "river," "snake," "salmon," or anything having a wavy motion. The sound "Pah" means water. Therefore, a river is undulating water. "Pe-on" is contracted from the two syllables, "Pe-ah," big and "Pah," water or Big Water meaning the Pacific Ocean. Some strik- ing natural phenomenon determined the cardinal points for the Shoshonis. Thus, "Coona-nah," derived from "Coona," fire and "Nah," in the direction of, means North, referring to the Northern Lights; or "To-yah-nah" from "To-yah," mountain the East as the sun, in rising, comes from over the mountains ; or "You-aw-nah" from "You-ant" meaning warm, the South the direction of warmth especially of warm winds ; and "Pe-on-nah," West, the direction of the big water or ocean. Captain Clark stated that the Shoshonis of the Salmon River country when asked about their river said it flowed into

2 Upham's Minnesota Geographic Names, 4.

3 Boaz, Handbook of American Indian Languages, 875.