Vol. 63 No. 2 (2015)
Research Article

The Etymology and History of the Placename “Des Moines”

PDF
  • Michael McCafferty
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773815Z.000000000114

Published 2015-06-01

Keywords

  • Japan,
  • kinship terms,
  • psychology,
  • honorifics,
  • child,
  • depression
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2015 Maney Publishing

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

The original form of the placename “Des Moines” was created by a seventeenth-century French mapmaker. It was given a new life — and its present form — by an early nineteenth-century French-speaking mapmaker. However, the name “Moines” comes from an American Indian tribe name that has undergone extensive and interesting changes since it was first recorded around the summer solstice in the year 1673 by the Jesuit missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette. The following article presents this placename’s history and explains its unusual meaning in the Miami-Illinois language.

PDF

References

  1. Anonymous. [eighteenth century]. “Nouvelle Carte de la Louisiane et Du fleuve Mississipi.” In Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, vol. ii. Comp. Wayne C. Temple. Springfield: Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers, Part I Atlas, Supplement, 1975, pl. LXIII.
  2. Bowen, E. and J. Gibson. 1763. “North America.” In Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, comp. Temple, pl. LXXII.
  3. Buisseret, David, and Carl Kupfer. 2011. “Validating the 1673 ‘Marquette Map’.” Journal of Illinois History, 14 (Winter): 261–276.
  4. [Clark, William] [1805]. “A Map of part of the Continent of North America … Copied by Nicolas King 1806.” In Tucker, 1942: part 1, pl. XXXIB.
  5. Clark, William. 1810. [North America]. <http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3057/> [Accessed November 16 2014). Original at Yale University.
  6. Costa, David J. 2000. “Miami-Illinois Tribe Names.” In Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference. Ed. John Nichols. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 30–53.
  7. Coues, Elliott, ed. 1895. The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, vol. 1. New York: F. P. Harper. [Reprint. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1986].
  8. Fay, Jim. 2010. “Des Moines is Not an Insult: Thoughts on the Moingona Tribe.” Newsletter of the Iowa Archeological Society, 60(1): 1–3.
  9. Franquelin, Jean-Baptiste Louis. 1678. “Carte Gnlle De La France Septentrionnalle …” 4040B no. 11. Paris: Bibliothèque du service hydrographique de la Marine.
  10. Franquelin, Jean-Baptiste Louis. 1684a. “Carte De La Louisiane, ou des voyages du Sr de La Salle …” Francis Parkman Copy. Library of Congress, Washington.
  11. Franquelin, Jean-Baptiste Louis. 1684b. “Carte de l’Amerique Septent.le entre 27 et 64 degrés de lattitude & environ 250 & 340 de longitude où est compris les pays de … Par Jean Louis Franquelin; designee et Écrite par F. de la Croix.” Bibliothèque Historique Centrale de la Marine, Chateau de Vincennes, France. Recueil 66(8–11).
  12. Franquelin, Jean-Baptiste Louis. 1688. “Carte de l’Amerique Septentrionnalle …” In Tucker, 1942: pl. XIA.
  13. Franquelin, Jean-Baptiste Louis. 1697. [Untitled]. [Delisle copy]. French National Archives: ANF/Map/6JJ/75/B.
  14. Hutchins, Thomas. 1778. “A New Map of the Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina.” In Tucker, 1942: pl. XXIX.
  15. Keyes, Charles R. 1898. “Des Moines River and the Origin of the Name.” Annals of Iowa 3(7): 554–559.
  16. King, Nicolas. 1807. “An account of a voyage up the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to its source: made under the orders of the War Department, by Lieut. Pike, of the United States Army, in the years 1805 and 1806 / compiled from Mr. Pike’s journal.” 68 pages and map. [Washington]. [Publisher unidentified]. [Original in the Lilly Library, Indiana University-Bloomington].
  17. Largillier, Jacques. [ca. 1700]. [“Gravier” Illinois-French manuscript dictionary]. Hartford: Watkinson Library, Trinity College.
  18. Margry, Pierre, ed. 1876. Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans l’Ouest et dans le Sud de l’Amérique Septentrionale 1614–1698. Mémoires et documents inédits recueillis et publiés par Pierre Margry. 6 vols. [Reprint 1974. New York: AMS Press].
  19. Marquette, Jacques. [1673]. “Carte de Mississipi.” Archives de la Société de Jésus Canada français, Montreal; also in Tucker, 1942: pl. V.
  20. McCafferty, Michael. 2003. “On the Birthday and Etymology of the Placename Missouri.” Names 51(2): 111–125.
  21. McCafferty, Michael. 2008. Native American Place-Names of Indiana. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  22. McCafferty, Michael. Fall 2011. “Jacques Largillier: French Trader, Jesuit Brother, and Jesuit Scribe par excellence.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 188–197.
  23. McDermott, John Francis. 1949. Old Cahokia. St. Louis: St. Louis Historical Documents Foundation.
  24. Nau, Anthony. 1806. “A Sketch of the Mississippi …” In Tucker, 1942: pl. XXXII.
  25. Nau, Anthony. 1811. “Map of the Mississippi River from its Source to the Mouth of the Missouri …” In Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, vol. 2, comp. Temple, pl. LXXX.
  26. Nicollet, Joseph-Nicolas. 1841. Report Intended to Illustrate A Map of the Hydrological Basin of the Upper Mississippi River. Washington: Blair and Rives. <https://archive.org/stream/reportintendedto00nico#page/22/mode/2up> [Accessed January 12 2014].
  27. Paul, René. 1816. “A Map Exhibiting the Territorial Limits of several Nations & Tribes …” In Tucker, 1942: pl. XLI.
  28. Pease, Theodore Calvin, and Raymond C. Werner, eds. 1934. The French Foundation 1680–1693. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. xxiii. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 342.
  29. Pike, Zebulon Montgomery. 1805. [Mississippi voyage notebook]. <http://www.zebulonpike.net/pdf/Pikenotebook.pdf> [Accessed November 16 2014].
  30. Popple, Henry. 1730. [Henry Popple map], In Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, vol. 2, comp. Temple, pl. LXVII.
  31. Stewart, George R. 1970. American Place Names: A Concise and Selective Dictionary for the Continental United States of America. New York: Oxford University Press.
  32. Sturtevant, William C., gen. ed. 1978–. Handbook of North American Indians. 17 vols. Washington: The Smithsonian Institution.
  33. Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. 1896–1901. Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 73 vols. Cleveland: Burrows Brothers.
  34. Tucker, Sarah Jones, comp. 1942. Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, Springfield: Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 2(1).
  35. Vogel, Virgil. 1983. Iowa Place Names of Indian Origin. Iowa, City: University of Iowa Press.
  36. Wood, W. Raymond. 1996. “The Missouri River Basin on the 1795 Soulard Map — a Cartographic Landmark.” Great Plains Quarterly 16 <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2105&context=greatplainsquarterly> [Accessed November 16 2014].