Towns Named Seneca

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There is only one native tribe name that has become a town name in the USA that is widespread. It’s Seneca. There are at least 15 Senecas out there. The largest town with this name is in New York and has added Falls to its name. Seneca Falls has a population of about 7,000 people. Many people living in this town were important in the Women’s movement. There are some tourist attractions mostly about women in this town. Seneca Falls is near a lake called Cayuga.

The town of Ithaca, NY is at the other end of this lake. This town has a name from The Greek classic called The Odyssey. Ithaca was the Grecian home of the hero of this great classic that followed The Iliad. The great Greek hero Odysseus had many adventures while trying to get back to his family in Ithaca. It took him several years to return home, and he found many suitors for his wife Penelope after he finally achieved a homecoming. There are also towns with the name Ithaca in Nebraska and Ohio.

There are several Senecas in the United States with about 2,000 people living in them. They are in the states of Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri. The town called Seneca in Nebraska used to be a thriving railroad town in the center of the state, but it has fallen on hard times and has fewer than 30 citizens now. It was established in 1888. Most Senecas today are like the Nebraska Seneca. The only exception to this is the Seneca in South Carolina that had grown to 8,900 by the year 2021. In the Northwestern part of the state near Greenville and Spartanburg, Seneca is now a thriving community.

The remaining Senecas are quite small. The Seneca in California hasn’t had a post office since 1943 and is barely holding on. Other very small Senecas exist in the states of New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Seneca in Michigan is the only exception. More than 1,000 people live in it.

Hank

Native American Indian Reservations

There are 326 Native American Reservations in the United States, and 574 individual tribes are recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 56 million plus 200 thousand acres are said to be Indian Reservation land. Together all the reservations put together are larger than the entire state of Idaho. In California, which has the largest native population in the nation, reservations are usually called rancherias or simply reservations. This is true of most states where Indian land is simply called reservation land. About half of California Native American land is called rancherias. In New Mexico, most reservations are called pueblos. In Nevada there are Indian colonies. In some Western states native Americans make up most of the population. There are over 1 million people living on American reservations now.

12 reservations are larger than the state of Rhode Island, but the largest reservation of them all is the Navajo Reservation that is in 3 states: Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It covers 27,325 square miles and is larger than the state of West Virginia. It encompasses the Four Corners area. Navajo is the language of choice on this reservation, but English is spoken by most inhabitants too. The US Government established forts in this area to protect both citizens and Navajos from each other. In the spring of 1864 the Army forced about 9,000 Navajo men, women, and children to walk over 300 miles to Fort Sumner in New Mexico for internment at Bosque Redondo. The Navajos call this “The Fearing Time”. Four years later a treaty was signed that allowed Indian leaders to return to their homeland. This was just one incident among many that occurred. The state of Colorado has only 2 reservations that are called Southern Ute and Ute Mountain. It is rare in the Western USA for states to have no reservation land.

There are many US towns with Native American names. There is, for example, a town in Iowa named Camanche. It is named for the Comanche tribe, has a population of close to 5,000 people, and is just south of Clinton. There is also a Keokuk in this state named for Native Americans. I am investigating 3 towns in Minnesota to discover if they have roots in native culture. They’re the towns of Red Wing, Ely and Shakopee. There is a Sioux City in Iowa too, and Sioux is definitely an established tribal name. Hyannis, Massachusetts, is also said to be Native American in origin despite the Kennedy name all about. Kewanee, Illinois is said to be basically Potawatomi based and there are several towns in Nez Perce land that is essentially Native American. The town of Lapwai, Idaho is close to the Nez Perce Reservation that is said to be 750,000 acres, and tribal members own 13 % of this town.

to be continued Hank

Towns Named Peru

The South American country known as Peru is home to 70% of the world’s llamas and is the place where the potato originated. For some wacky reason there are 13 towns in the USA named Peru. Imagine 13 countries named Brazil or Ecuador if you are not impressed with this fact.

The largest Peru in the United States is in Indiana. This American town is north of Kokomo on the Wabash River and has 11,417 residents according to Rand McNally. The 2nd largest town with this name is in Illinois, which happens to be Indiana’s neighbor. I have no idea why this South American name is so popular here. The number of people living in a town with the name Peru falls off rapidly after these two towns. The Peru in Massachusetts, for example, has a population of only 814 souls even though it’s on most maps of America. The Peru in Illinois, however, has a population similar to the one in Indiana and is a stand alone town on I-80 between Chicago and the Quad Cities in Iowa. There is a town named Peru in the Midwestern state of Iowa too, but there are only about 100 people living in it at the present time.

There are also towns with the name Peru in Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. There are Perus in New England too with Vermont and Maine both having population centers with this name. The population of these 2 towns in New England are fairly similar. The town of Peru, New York, is near the Adirondack area not too far from Lake Champlain.

But the town with the name Peru that is the oddest one of all to me is in West Virginia. There is a town in this breakaway state devoted to a bird. The town’s name is Bob White and a Bob White is a type of quail and normally it is a chunky game bird. In this state are also towns with the names War, Odd, Smoot, Left Hand, and Droop. Speaking of wacky, in this state with an Oxford and an Athens are towns using the name of a game bird to promote themselves and this is sort of unusual to me, but I’m imagining that hunters love this name and come here seeking these birds for food.

Hank

Trail Of Tears

There is certainly a lot about the Trail of Tears on the internet. It was a historical event that lasted from 1830 until 1850 and displaced 100,000 Native American people. At least 15,000 of them died on their journey to Oklahoma. The Native American groups most affected by this removal were the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations. They were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes and moved to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River due to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The displaced persons suffered from exposure to disease, starvation, and death while en route to their new homes.

Many opposed the legislation but President Andrew Jackson was able to gain Congressional approval of the Indian Removal Act by 1830 and the Choctaws became the First Nation to be removed. The government was authorized to extinguish any Indian titles to land claims in the Southeast. The Seminoles in Florida were the next people to be removed after 2 wars were fought. The Creek removal occurred in 1834 and the Chickasaws followed 5 years later. The Cherokee were the last to be removed in 1838. By 1837, 46,000 Indians had been removed from their homelands and 25 million acres had been cleared for settlement

As the abandoned land became states, state governments tried to dissolve the boundaries of the Indian nations. This action was exacerbated by population growth, the expansion of slavery, and the development of cotton cultivation. Natives who moved to this new territory found mostly undeveloped land. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson was damaged as 86 treaties with 26 American Native Nations between New York and the Mississippi went into operation. The removals caused more problems than they solved. Many Cherokees were rounded into camps in large numbers of up to 700 where communicable diseases spread rapidly. Many died. Extortion and violence followed along the route they had taken. The weather changed. The Trail of Tears became a total mess.

More Towns Named for Indian Chiefs

The city of Seattle is named for a Native American of note. Chief Seattle was of Suquamish and Duwamish origin. He pursued a path of accommodation with white settlers. He argued for ecological responsibility and respect for land rights. He was born on Blake Island near Seattle between 1780 and 1786. A leader and warrior, he kept his people out of the Battle of Seattle in 1856.

Oceola was named Billy Powell originally. He was a Seminole leader in Florida. His mother was Muscogee and his great-grandfather was Scotch, but he was reared in the Creek tradition by his mother. He led members of his tribe in an attempt by the US Army to remove his tribe from Florida to west of the Mississippi River, and is today considered a hero. There is a town named Oceola in South Dakota and 19 other places, and there are Oceola counties.

Chief Pontiac, also called Obwaandi’eyaag, was an Ottawa war authority. Between 1736 and 1766 he led Native Americans in an armed struggle against British forces in the Great Lakes region where he was an important local leader. He laid siege to Fort Detroit among other exploits. He defeated a British detachment in the Battle of Bloody Run and is considered a hero now. There are at least 9 towns named Pontiac in the US.

Tecumseh was a Shawnee Chief and warrior who fought for resistance to the expansion of the US onto native American lands. He was a persuasive orator who promoted tribal unity and died in the War of 1812 while becoming a national folk hero.

Cochise was a leader of the Chiricahua, a band of Apache Natives. He was a key leader during the Apache Wars and led an uprising that existed until a peace treaty was negotiated.

Tuscaloosa, for whom an important town in Alabama is named, was a chief of the Choctaw and Creek Native American confederacies and led the Battle of Mabila against conquistador Hernando de Soto.

Tuscumbia is another city in Alabama named for Tashka Ambi, a Cherokee or Chickasaw leader. Helen Keller is from this Alabama city.

There are at least 3 major Canadian native heroes that Americans should know about. They are Elijah Harper, Chief Dan George, and Louis Reil. Reil, a founding father of Manitoba, was a leader of the Metis people. He sought to preserve their rights and culture despite growing European influence.

Hank