OCR Text |
Show Names of Great Lakes Both Indian and French Gannett's "Origin of Place Names In the United States" says that opinions differ as to the origin of the name Huron. According to some It is a corruption of "Ilure" given a tribe of Indians hy the French. It means "the head of a wild boar." It Is believed by some that it is from the Indian words "onkwe homve," meaning "true man." Still others believe it is a corruption by French from the Indian "irri ronon," meaning mean-ing "cat tribe." Erie is from "Erige," or "Erike," the name of a now extinct ex-tinct Indian tribe. The word signifies signi-fies "cat" or "wildcat." Some authorities author-ities believe the word means "mad." Ontario in the Indian word meaning mean-ing beautiful lake or "beautiful prospect pros-pect of rocks, hills and water." Michigan is an Indian word said by some to mean "big lake" and by others "place for catching fish." Superior Su-perior is a translation of the original orig-inal French name, "Lac Superieur aux Ontaouacs," meaning "the upper lake of the Ottawas." |