Wisconsin Life

>> I'll start with the word Wisconsin because there's so many things that are written about it. My uncle told me, he used the word Wis-Co-Sin. -- that means, something that's good. Okay, so the way I understand it, Wis-Co-Sin means, like a good place to live. What he explained to me was -- and --. That's like a camp or a place where people, you know, stay. He said that's what that name means, a good place to live. We camp here in a good way. We call this area --. That means, a bay, water or a bay there. -- that's the interesting part of word, because as I understand it and as my uncle explained it, that comes from that story where that wolf crossed the bay and was taken in. So they say -- as like spiteful. You've got to be careful around that area. It's true! Every winter you hear about fishermen out there. They're sitting there, all of the sudden they're almost floating away on an ice flow. So that fits that --. of course I'm from Keshena, --. That means, 'swift flyer', one that flies fast, swift. That was an old leader's name, back a long time ago. Shawano, that's a term that we use for the southern direction, or 'in the south.' Oconto, 'place of the Pike.' That's a Pike, a fish. That ending 'O,' that's locative at that place. Peshtigo, Pesh-Tec-O, 'proper wave.' Pesh is something that is done in a proper way or really influential, and Teco means wave. Marinette and Menomonie, of course the Menomonie name because that was the ancestral village. They called it Minecone-Saype. Minecone is the place of the village, Saype is a river. Oshkosh, 'the claw.' That was named after that leader. They called him Chief Oshkosh. Ke-Waut-Na, Kewaunee, a far away place. It's way over there. Waut-Na, it's over there. Manitowoc, Mana-Tu-Wuk. Mana-Tu is an animal. They say, like a wild animal, a bear or a deer or a wolf. That ending is what they call plural. Mana-Tu-Wuk. I even heard Mana-Tu-Wa, 'place of the animal.' And Sheboygan, now that one can kind of go in different areas. It can be --, a big Pike. Actually, my uncle told me too, he thinks that is was named after the area down south that they call Poygan, which was a --. That's when you're pick wild rice, you're striking that rice. He said that, what he knows about it, they had a similar-- They had that match. It means big, something big. The translation of the word Milwaukee, what I learned, was one is, Manauwa-Kee. That means 'the land where something happens.' They say something bad happened, because when the people used to go there, something always happened. It was a long trip and there were a lot of things that could happen. I also heard the word Mah-NoAkee. Mah-No, 'it's good.' Akee, the earth. So they say good earth. They say that in that valley that's down there, where that river flows there, there was a lot of plants and stuff down there. Chicago, Chica, 'the skunk.' Chica-Cuk, more than one skunk. Chica-Co, place of the skunk. We always joke about the Chicago Bears. We always tease about that. Chica-Co, 'skunk place.' A long time ago when the French came, and I think that was Nicolet. The people that was showing them the way, they were from up north, --. We call them --, Ottawa. They spoke a similar language to us. So when they came in and somebody asked who we were. We had the big village. They stopped at that big village on the Menomonee River. In their language they told them -- in their language. They have the word, Menomen. That means wild rice. The ending means man, Enanee. That's how they say that, and the plural is the Uck. We, as I understand it, we were okay with that word. It was significant of how we were identified. We were the People of the Wild Rice. That is a very important food in our culture. We use that name, Mene-Nomen-Eee, because in our language, Men-Omeh is wild rice. --, when it's growing, --, when it's done, when it's dead and you eat it. We use that term, Mene-Nomen-Eee as one person, Mene-Nomen-Ee-Wuk, more than one. I've heard old people say, when they identify who we were, they would say, --. You use that term, --, that means they move around or they're restless, they're always going here and there. So that became the word for people. When I was growing up people would say, yeah, that means 'Indian.' That's how we'd identify who we are. We call the people of the past, we called them --, the Ancient Ones. That's our ancestors. Then it's become garbled into Menominee.