An Eel-related Chicken-or-the-Egg Place Name

                      

The form, meaning and application of locally created American Indian place names are generally transparent, as in the case of ahsenaamiši siipiiwi ‘Sugar Maple Tree River’ in Indiana or aramoni (siipiiwi) ‘Vermilion River’ in Illinois.

However, occasionally the true form, meaning, and/or application of a place name can be opaque, often on account of the lack of primary historical sources, including the possibility that the historical record does not go far enough back in time to allow us to draw any conclusions about a name. 

The Miami-Illinois hydronym   kineepikomeekwa siipiiwi   ~  kineepikwameekwa siipiiwi   is a case in point.   

The name literally means “snake-fish river,” in other words,“eel river”. It refers to the tributary of the northern Wabash River known today as Eel River. 

The question in the case of this river is whether the Miami band known as kineepikwameekwaki ‘the Eels’, who came to live on the river in the 1700s, gave their already established ethnonym to this stream when they arrived to live on its banks, or if the stream was originally named for an abundance of eels--and the Miami group got their ethnonym from the fact that they came to reside on a stream full of eels.

Either situation is possible, and as far as I can see, there is no historical evidence that allows us to determine which is the correct one.

Michael McCafferty

©2015