Navajo Place Names

Navajo Place Names
Author:
Publisher: Mps Multimedia Incorporated DBA Selectsoft
Total Pages: 108
Release: 1995
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Native American Placenames of the Southwest

Native American Placenames of the Southwest
Author: William Bright
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2013-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806189169

Have you ever driven through a small town with an intriguing name like Wyandotte or Cuyamungue and wondered where that name came from? Or how such well-known placenames as Tucson, Waco, or Tulsa originated? Native American placenames like these occur all across the American Southwest. This user-friendly guide—covering Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas—provides fascinating information about the meaning and origins of southwestern placenames. With its unique regional approach and compact design, the handbook is especially suitable for curious travelers. Written by distinguished linguist William Bright, the handbook is organized alphabetically, and its entries for places—including towns, cities, counties, parks, and geographic landmarks—are concise and easy to read. Entries give the state and county, along with all available information on pronunciation, the name of the language from which the name derives, the name’s literal meaning, and relevant history.In their introduction to the handbook, editors Alice Anderton and Sean O’Neill provide easy-to-understand pronunciation keys for English and Native languages. They further explain basic linguistic terminology and common southwestern geographical terms such as mesa, canyon, and barranca. The book also features maps showing all counties in each of the southwestern states, a list of Native languages and language families, and contact information for tribal headquarters throughout the Southwest.

Native American Placenames of the United States

Native American Placenames of the United States
Author: William Bright
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 632
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780806135984

This volume combines historical research and linguistic fieldwork with native speakers from across the United States to present the first comprehensive, up-to-date, scholarly dictionary of American placenames derived from native languages." "Linguist William Bright assembled a team of twelve editorial consultants - experts in Native American languages - and many other native contributors to prepare this lexicon of eleven thousand placenames along with their etymologies. New data from leading scholars make this volume an invaluable reference for students of American Indian culture, folklore, and local histories. Bright's introduction explains his methodology and the contents of each entry. This comprehensive, alphabetical lexicon preserves native language as it details the history and culture found in American indian placenames.

Navajo Placenames and Trails of the Canyon de Chelly System, Arizona

Navajo Placenames and Trails of the Canyon de Chelly System, Arizona
Author: Stephen C. Jett
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2001
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Placenames also function as mnemonic devices that may facilitate communication, travel, resource-finding, and mythological memory, and as such are highly charged linguistic symbols.".

Indian Placenames in America

Indian Placenames in America
Author: Sandy Nestor
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2015-05-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0786493399

The American Indians have lost much of their land over the years, but their legacy is evident in the many places around the United States that have Indian names. Countless placenames have, however, been corrupted over time, and numerous placenames have similar spellings but different meanings. This reference work is a reprint in one combined volume of the two-volume set published by McFarland in 2003 and 2005. Volume One covers the name origins and histories of cities, towns and villages in the United States that have Indian names. It is arranged alphabetically by state, then alphabetically by city, town or village name. Additional data include population figures and county names. Probable Indian placenames with no certain origin also receive entries, and as much history as possible is provided about those locations. Volume Two covers more than 1400 rivers, lakes, mountains and other natural features in the United States with Indian names. It is arranged by state, and then alphabetically by natural feature. Counties are provided for most entries, with multiple counties listed for some entries where appropriate. In addition to name origins and meanings, geophysical data such as the heights of mountains and lengths of waterways are indicated.

Landscape in Language

Landscape in Language
Author: David M. Mark
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2011-06-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902728704X

Landscape is fundamental to human experience. Yet until recently, the study of landscape has been fragmented among the disciplines. This volume focuses on how landscape is represented in language and thought, and what this reveals about the relationships of people to place and to land. Scientists of various disciplines such as anthropologists, geographers, information scientists, linguists, and philosophers address several questions, including: Are there cross-cultural and cross-linguistic variations in the delimitation, classification, and naming of geographic features? Can alternative world-views and conceptualizations of landscape be used to produce culturally-appropriate Geographic Information Systems (GIS)? Topics included: ontology of landscape; landscape terms and concepts; toponyms; spiritual aspects of land and landscape terms; research methods; ethical dimensions of the research; and its potential value to indigenous communities involved in this type of research.

A Diné History of Navajoland

A Diné History of Navajoland
Author: Klara Kelley
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816538743

For the first time, a sweeping history of the Diné that is foregrounded in oral tradition. Authors Klara Kelley and Harris Francis share Diné history from pre-Columbian time to the present, using ethnographic interviews in which Navajo people reveal their oral histories on key events such as Athabaskan migrations, trading and trails, Diné clans, the Long Walk of 1864, and the struggle to keep their culture alive under colonizers who brought the railroad, coal mining, trading posts, and, finally, climate change. The early chapters, based on ceremonial origin stories, tell about Diné forebears. Next come the histories of Diné clans from late pre-Columbian to early post-Columbian times, and the coming together of the Diné as a sovereign people. Later chapters are based on histories of families, individuals, and communities, and tell how the Diné have struggled to keep their bond with the land under settler encroachment, relocation, loss of land-based self-sufficiency through the trading-post system, energy resource extraction, and climate change. Archaeological and documentary information supplements the oral histories, providing a comprehensive investigation of Navajo history and offering new insights into their twentieth-century relationships with Hispanic and Anglo settlers. For Diné readers, the book offers empowering histories and stories of Diné cultural sovereignty. “In short,” the authors say, “it may help you to know how you came to be where—and who—you are.”

Naming the World

Naming the World
Author: Andrew Cowell
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018-11-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816539065

Naming the World examines language shift among the Northern Arapaho of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, and the community’s diverse responses as it seeks social continuity. Andrew Cowell argues that, rather than a single “Arapaho culture,” we find five distinctive communities of practice on the reservation, each with differing perspectives on social and more-than-human power and the human relationships that enact power. As the Arapaho people resist Euro-American assimilation or domination, the Arapaho language and the idea that the language is sacred are key rallying points—but also key points of contestation. Cowell finds that while many at Wind River see the language as crucial for maintaining access to more-than-human power, others primarily view the language in terms of peer-oriented identities as Arapaho, Indian, or non-White. These different views lead to quite different language usage and attitudes in relation to place naming, personal naming, cultural metaphors, new word formation, and the understudied practice of folk etymology. Cowell presents data from conversations and other natural discourse to show the diversity of everyday speech and attitudes, and he links these data to broader debates at Wind River and globally about the future organization of indigenous societies and the nature of Arapaho and indigenous identity.

Tony Hillerman's Navajoland

Tony Hillerman's Navajoland
Author: Laurance D. Linford
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0874808480

"Avid readers of Tony Hillerman's Southwestern mysteries have probably wondered about the many place names they encounter as Chee and Leaphorn puzzle out another crime in the Four Corners region." "This handy reference and visitor's guide contains entries for all places mentioned in the Hillerman novels. It provides location, historical information, the meaning of Navajo and Hopi names, and where the place appears in the mysteries. This expanded second edition includes entries for The Wailing Wind, The Sinister Pig, and Skeleton Man as well as all previous works."--BOOK JACKET.