No less than 27 out of the 50 states' names in the USA are based in American Indian languages. Additionally, six out of 13 of Canada's provinces and territories have names with indigenous origins, and, of course, Canada itself is derived from an indigenous source. Shakespeare quipped, "What's in a name?" A lot, it turns out, because states like California and Florida reflect their Spanish history; here, in the Great Lakes, that history is indigenous. If you have an understanding of the name of a place, its history may reveal itself. And that history will, most likely, enrich your own life and your place in it. Join us on this journey through Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as we alphabetically traverse indigenous place names in each locale. Alternately, you can peruse an alphabetical concordance of every place name. In the appendices, you'll discover details of US and Canadian treaties with indigenous people, and many that are still under dispute today "Emeritus Professor Phil Bellfy has used his life-long Indigenous knowledge to produce this imaginative, original work that will be indispensable to any researcher working on Indigenous studies in the Great Lakes watershed. Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes will be in the forefront of changing the way in which Indigenous knowledge shapes the hitherto colonial narrative of the Great Lakes." David T. McNab, professor emeritus, York University, Toronto, Ontario. "Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes is a fascinating exploration of the Indigenous origins of many place names bordering the Great Lakes. This book offers readers the opportunity to contemplate their place within the landscape of the Indigenous homelands now claimed by the Canadian and American settler states. It is a must-own companion book for researchers, residents and anyone interested in the places, history and linguistic heritages of the Great Lakes." --Karl Hele, Anishinaabeg and the Davidson Chair in Canadian Studies, Mount Allison University "Words carry meaning and history. In this Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes, Dr. Phil Bellfy takes us on an etymological journey around the Great Lakes region as he explains the possible origins and meanings of Native American place names. This book helps paint a relational picture of the cultural world of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi and how that view has been impacted by settler colonialism." -- Dr. Martin Reinhardt, Anishinaabe Ojibway citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians; professor of Native American Studies, Northern Michigan University, president of the Michigan Indian Education Council. From Ziibi Press www.ZiibiPress.com

Indians and Other Misnomers attempts to rescue the present from the past by documenting the names that tribal people use to refer to themselves, many of their historical figures, and many of the place names of North America that are of Native origin.

Folklore has been described as the unwritten literature of a culture: its songs, stories, sayings, games, rituals, beliefs, and ways of life. Encyclopedia of American Folklore helps readers explore topics, terms, themes, figures, and issues related to this popular subject. This comprehensive reference guide addresses the needs of multiple audiences, including high school, college, and public libraries, archive and museum collections, storytellers, and independent researchers. Its content and organization correspond to the ways educators integrate folklore within literacy and wider learning objectives for language arts and cultural studies at the secondary level. This well-rounded resource connects United States folk forms with their cultural origin, historical context, and social function. Appendixes include a bibliography, a category index, and a discussion of starting points for researching American folklore. References and bibliographic material throughout the text highlight recently published and commonly available materials for further study. Coverage includes: Folk heroes and legendary figures, including Paul Bunyan and Yankee Doodle Fables, fairy tales, and myths often featured in American folklore, including "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Princess and the Pea" American authors who have added to or modified folklore traditions, including Washington Irving Historical events that gave rise to folklore, including the civil rights movement and the Revolutionary War Terms in folklore studies, such as fieldwork and the folklife movement Holidays and observances, such as Christmas and Kwanzaa Topics related to folklore in everyday life, such as sports folklore and courtship/dating folklore Folklore related to cultural groups, such as Appalachian folklore and African-American folklore and more.

When Anglo-Americans looked west after the Revolution, they hoped to see a blank slate upon which to build their continental republic. However, French settlers had inhabited the territory stretching from Ohio to Oregon for over a century, blending into Native American networks, economies, and communities. Images of these French settlers saturated nearly every American text concerned with the West. Edward Watts argues that these representations of French colonial culture played a significant role in developing the identity of the new nation. In regard to land, labor, gender, family, race, and religion, American interpretations of the French frontier became a means of sorting the empire builders from those with a more moderate and contained nation in mind, says Watts. Romantic nationalists such as George Bancroft, Francis Parkman, and Lyman Beecher used the French model to justify the construction of a nascent empire. Alternatively, writers such as Margaret Fuller, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Hall presented a less aggressive vision of the nation based on the colonial French themselves. By examining how representations of the French shaped these conversations, Watts offers an alternative view of antebellum culture wars.

The Lake Huron area of the Upper Great Lakes region, an area spreading across vast parts of the United States and Canada, has been inhabited by the Anishnaabeg for millennia. Since their first contact with Europeans around 1600, the Anishnaabeg have interacted with--and struggled against--changing and shifting European empires and the emerging nation-states that have replaced them. Through their cultural strength, diplomatic acumen, and a remarkable knack for adapting to change, the Anishnaabeg of the Lake Huron Borderlands have reemerged as a strong and vital people, fully in charge of their destiny in the twenty-first century. Winner of the North American Indian Prose Award, this first comprehensive cross-border history of the Anishnaabeg provides an engaging account of four hundred years of their life in the Lake Huron area, showing how they have been affected by European contact and trade. Three Fires Unity examines how shifting European politics and, later, the imposition of the Canada-United States border running through their homeland, affected them and continue to do so today. In looking at the cultural, social, and political aspects of this borderland contact, Phil Bellfy sheds light on how the Anishnaabeg were able to survive and even thrive over the centuries in this intensely contested region.

Encyclopedia of American Folklore helps readers explore the topics, terms, themes, figures, and issues related to the folklore of the United States.