Indigenous Place Names Research Articles

Indigenous Place Names: A Literary Toponomastics Study of Suburb Names in Cape Coast

Indigenous Place Names: A Literary Toponomastics Study of Suburb Names in Cape Coast

Chasing colonization back: rethinking parks, returning place-names, and restoring buffalo medicine—an interview with Ninna Piiksii, Dr. Mike Bruised Head

In this interview, we hear from influential Blackfoot Elder and Cultural Educator Ninna Piiksii, Dr. Michael Bruised Head. Mike reflects on the colonial naming of national parks and the need to return to Indigenous place-names, examining how we occupy a pivotal moment where park staff are more open to substantive Indigenous engagement and presence within parks, although more needs to be done. Drawing connections across topics that may initially seem discrete, Mike reflects on his experience as a survivor of the Canadian residential school system, colonial dispossession by parks and more broadly, and how Blackfoot restoration efforts—including the return of buffalo or iinnii—can offer paths for healing from these traumas and build a more just, Blackfoot-led future. Through this, Mike asks us to rethink the profound value and potential of conservation, pushing beyond Western understandings. He closes by asking the interviewers to reflect on what motivates them to support Tribal buffalo restoration, turning the tables on the interviewer and interviewee, and reinforcing the importance of connection and responsibility among non-Tribal research collaborators. We open with an introduction to Mike and then turn to hear his words. The interview format reflects a growing trend of expert-interviews-as-articles and Indigenous practices of oral knowledge transmission. We also link to an audio recording of the interview to allow readers to become listeners and hear Mike’s words in full context. The conversation and format are offered in the spirit of opening more space for Indigenous—and particularly Blackfoot—voices, perspectives, and methodologies in conservation scholarship.

Soviet and Russian Regimes of Spatial Inscription: A Critical Analysis of Indigenous versus Official Place Names on Maps in Siberia, 1920s–2000s

This article discusses Indigenous Evenki place names (hydronyms) on official topographic maps and handwritten sketches in a broader context of Soviet and Russian regimes of spatial inscription and toponymic policies and their legacies. The early Soviet policy of korenizatsia (indigenization) facilitated the incorporation of Indigenous place names into official nomenclature. As a result, a large number of Indigenous toponyms appeared on official maps. The aim of this article is to examine the evolving relationships between Indigenous place names and official place names of Indigenous origin across three historical periods (the 1920s, the 1950s, and the contemporary era) and in two politically distinct settings, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Amur region. The data sets for this research were extracted from official maps and Evenki archival sketch maps collected by Glafira Vasilevich in Siberia between the 1920s and the 1960s. Using Quantum GIS in conjunction with ethnographic fieldwork, statistical analysis, and qualitative linguistic assessment, this research further investigates the evolution of Indigenous names on maps, focusing on the most characteristic changes in their inscription over the past century. This article concludes by highlighting the power dynamics between different Indigenous place-naming traditions in Siberia, where various Indigenous communities have historically distinct opportunities to influence toponymic policies.

Indigenous place names in arctic Canada: A publicly accessible inventory of projects

Toponyms contain Indigenous modes of understanding and reflect ecological histories and deep relationships between Indigenous communities, arctic environments, time, and land. Completed toponymic studies are useful for researchers to access; however, they are notoriously difficult to find. Many are completed by community groups and published on their websites, or are completed by government agencies and published as grey literature. An inventory of toponym projects has not existed, and eliciting what has been completed where, with whom, and by whom has required long searches through academic and grey literature. In this paper, we inventory Indigenous toponymy projects in the Canadian North, and document our efforts to produce a publicly accessible index where toponymy projects can be found via maps. New or unknown resources can be added by users. Our purpose, here, is to document the production of this resource and to increase awareness of toponymical resources among communities, researchers, scientists, and other stakeholders. We reflect on knowledge gained through construction of the index and make observations on trends in Inuit toponym research through time. We argue for renewed efforts across arctic sciences to recognize Inuit-environment relationships through reference to place names and the ecological histories they encapsulate, and we provide considerations for future work.

Place naming in Aceh: The genesis and generic patterns of toponyms in Banda Aceh and Greater Aceh

Studies conducted on documenting toponymic histories and issues of place name taxonomy and etymology in the Acehnese language are few to begin with. As names of villages in Aceh suggest, it indicates that many indigenous place names in the province seem to be redundant and possibly rooted from landscape formations. This study investigates the role of geographical and environmental as well as migration possibilities on their toponymy by using the descriptive method. The data were obtained from Acehnese village names in Banda Aceh and Greater Aceh areas, and observation and in-depth interviews were also used as instruments. The data were analyzed using the model proposed by Miles et al. (2014). The results of this study demonstrate the history and etymology of similar names of villages in Greater Aceh and Banda Aceh areas. However, those names are not related to the migration of people. In general, place naming in Aceh was based on the genesis of the naming and the generic pattern. The former was associated with the specific object or entity, the historical reasons and use of specific-word oriented, whereas the latter was mainly succeeding word-forming elements that followed different patterns of lexicon combinations and loan-words. This study shows that toponyms consist of a multi-facetted structure, which entails different features according to situations.

Evaluating the inclusion of Inuvialuktun place names in online maps

Place names, also known as toponyms, are a fundamental part of our cultural and geographical environment. Like many Indigenous groups, Inuvialuit in what is now northwestern Canada use place names to describe the landscape, guide and warn travellers, and convey important cultural information (Hart 2011, 9). Many efforts are underway to document, restore and promote the use of Indigenous toponyms in Canada, including their submission to provincial and territorial naming authorities (Inuit Heritage Trust 2016). A related means of raising the profile of Inuvialuit place names is their inclusion on maps that are readily accessible to the public. In their ten calls to action for natural science researchers working in Canada, Wong et al. (2020) underscore the need for Indigenous place names to be incorporated, with permission, in maps and text associated with scientific research to recognize the stories and Indigenous Knowledge behind the names (777). This paper is a step in addressing this call to action by presenting the results of an analysis of Inuvialuktun-language place names in the Tuktoyaktuk area. The analysis examines how readily the names are identified in official, and popular non-official sources and discusses implications for promoting Indigenous Knowledge more broadly.

‘Process Toponymy’: A GIS-Based Community-Engaged Approach to Indigenous Dynamic Place Naming Systems and Vernacular Cartography

This paper discusses the aim and the process of designing a community-engaged open-access GIS toponymic platform, based on Indigenous Evenki place names. Most projects on Indigenous toponymy available online are either oriented towards professional use among scholars or serve as enclosed repositories of Indigenous knowledge. Toponymic atlases remain the most common form of documenting and representing Indigenous place naming systems. Yet, temporal and geographic comparisons of place names have clearly demonstrated that, along with a conventional understanding of Indigenous place names as stable and conservative, there is a dynamic model of place naming to be found in nomadic societies, when the names are not only passed through generations but also modified and created. This finding required a number of methodological approaches regarding how researchers might collect and represent geospatial concepts and place names in nomadic societies, with the use of GIS technology. Our project attempts to approach this issue by creating an open digital platform that combines GIS with Indigenous vernacular cartography, place names, and a great variety of data regarding the meaning and use of toponyms, their evolution, and change. We call this approach a “process toponymy” and advocate for applying a semiotic approach to documenting and representing Indigenous place names’ knowledge via GIS-based platforms.

NORTH AMERICAN COMMISSION ON STRATIGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE Note 72 - Application for Revisions to the North American Stratigraphic Code to Address Culturally Offensive or Inappropriate Unit Names and to Encourage the Use of Indigenous Place Names

The North American Stratigraphic Code ("the Code") addresses the naming of formal geologic units from a scientific perspective. Guidelines based on scientific rationale are provided for assigning and revising unit names. However, whereas some scientific codes and guidelines now address the problem of offensive or inappropriate names, the Code at present has no means of addressing such matters. This omission presents a problem because most categories of formal units covered by the Code are named after geographic features, and some units have thus inherited culturally offensive or inappropriate names. The naming of geographic features (toponymy) also has reflected the historic suppression of Indigenous languages in North America. To address the first issue, additions and changes to the Code are proposed around the use of culturally offensive or inappropriate names: to explicitly counsel against their use; to provide a simplified process to rename scientifically valid units; and to invalidate nomenclatural stability as a justification for retaining such unit names. To address the second issue, additions to the Code are proposed that recognize maps produced by Indigenous governments or organizations as sources of geographic names, and that encourage the respectful use of Indigenous place names.

Triangulating Indigenous Place Names and Meteorological Data for a Better Understanding of Climate Change in Same District, Tanzania

Aims: The study sought to triangulate climate-related place names and quantitative evidence of climate change from meteorological data from 1960 to 2021 so as to establish the extent of climate change in Same District. Triangulating the two was important in ascertaining the strategies developed to adapt to climate change.
 Study Design: The study deployed a mixed research design which allows for the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a better understanding of the studied topic. This was important, as the study needed both qualitative and quantitative data.
 Methodology: Four villages with climate-related names were purposefully selected. In-depth interviews, structured interviews and direct observations were used in collecting primary data from 152 respondents. Meteorological data were collected from the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA).
 Results: Seven place names associated with wet conditions were found in the villages. The climatic conditions that led to the invention of the names have changed such that if the villages were to be named today, their names would reflect the dry condition found in the villages. These findings were supported by meteorological data, which indicated a significant decrease in rainfall (b = -1.1 and R = 0.1) and increase in maximum and minimum temperature (b = 0.02) and R = 0.4 and 0.5, respectively). Besides, the intensity and frequency of drought has been increasing over time such that currently (1991 to 2021) the area experiences intensive drought every three years, but did so every ten years, from 1960 to 1990. Farmers’ adaptation strategies included growing early maturing crops (EMCs), changing planting dates, growing drought-tolerant crops (DTCs), reducing the number of meals, and migration. However, most of the strategies are ineffective due to rapid climate change.
 Conclusion: Farmers’ adoption of strategies which can be effective in adapting to the current rapid climate change is important in having sustainable livelihoods. The strategies may include beekeeping and the cultivation of drought-tolerant crops.

Report of the President for the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study

Report of the President for the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study

Indigenous place names in toponymical strata on the Turtle Island

Indigenous place names in toponymical strata on the Turtle Island

Euro-Settler Place Naming Practices for North America through a Gendered and Racialized Lens

The rich fabric of place names knitting together the Americas weaves into a complex intercultural network of naming practices that span thousands of years as well as the globe. Indigenous, European, and settler communities each bestowed names upon places near and far whose meanings describe the place, its resources, or one’s experiences there. Names define the people who occupy a place. They commemorate an event or person in ways that evidence the gendered and racialized nature of place naming in the Americas, especially after 1492, through a predominately masculine lens. This study considers how women and people of color are represented in place names and the impacts of masculinist approaches to place nomenclature while contrasting Indigenous approaches to toponymy and the European reception of Indigenous place names in the Americas, with a focus on North America.

RENAME AND RESIST COLONIAL EXTRACTION: TWITTER’S TOPONYMIC POLITICS

In Canada, known to Indigenous peoples as Turtle Island, the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline would more than double transport of bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands, and though national legitimation of the project is strong, it relies on economic discourse that overwrites environmental concerns, as well as Canada’s lack of consultation with Indigenous peoples. Rejecting settler-colonial authority, pipeline protestors have turned to on-the-ground tactics including petitions and demonstrations - and also to social media, where they share information, organize, and express resistance. On Twitter, user profiles are associated with a diversity of locations including places like Vancouver and Ottawa, recognized under “official,” colonial names. Twitter’s free-form location field, however, enables users to self-select their locations, and connect with one another by situating themselves according to anti-colonial or Indigenous place names, such as “Secwepemcul’ecw” and “Unceded Syilx Territory.” Considering the colonial nature of resource extraction in Canada (Preston, 2017), our project addresses: in what ways does anti-pipeline sentiment correlate with anti-colonial or Indigenous-affiliated toponymic identifiers on Twitter? Applying digital methods, we found empirically that these locations map onto the hashtag discursive space consistently with the issue alignment of discourses, suggesting that users on Twitter do indeed engage in toponymic politics (Rogers, 2015). As a space of resistance and expression of marginalized perspectives, Twitter’s free-form user location enables political expression in ways that unavailable on platforms insisting on geolocation or geotagging. By design, Twitter enables users to establish geographies of trust beyond colonial hegemony as users identify according to Indigenous place names.

Making theComing HomeMap

To mark Canada 150, the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine released a new map, Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada. The map is intended to honour Indigenous place names in Canada and the assertion of Indigenous authority through place naming. It was made possible by permissions and contributions from First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities, organizations, and language speakers. In this article, we explain how and why this map came to be made at the Canadian-American Center. We examine the methods we used to request and include place names and how this process in turn informed the design of the visual language of the map.

Embodying Emergence: Reclaiming ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱

W̱SÁNEĆ territory, located on what is known today as the southern part of Vancouver Island, is a storied landscape, holding within its geographical features many sacred places with their own SENĆOŦEN names and stories. For the Grade 3 students of the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School, a visit to ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱, the mountain that bears the same name as the school, unearthed an unfamiliar layer of the stories connected to this place, which has long been held sacred to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. In the voices of these students, who are now in Grade 4, this article recounts their trip to the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ mountain in June 2018 and the process of toponymic activism that followed. The students’ Grade 3 teacher, a Euro-settler educator, joins the students in co-authoring this article, which illustrates why reclaiming Indigenous place names is important to decolonizing the map, first locally for these students and this particular place, and then in a broader sense.

Indigenous Place-Names in (Post)colonial Contexts: The Case of Ubmeje in Northern Sweden

Research Article| April 01 2020 Indigenous Place-Names in (Post)colonial Contexts: The Case of Ubmeje in Northern Sweden Daniel Andersson Daniel Andersson Umeå University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scandinavian Studies (2020) 92 (1): 104–126. https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.92.1.0104 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Daniel Andersson; Indigenous Place-Names in (Post)colonial Contexts: The Case of Ubmeje in Northern Sweden. Scandinavian Studies 1 January 2020; 92 (1): 104–126. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.92.1.0104 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressScandinavian Studies Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2020 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Indigenous Place-Names in (Post)colonial Contexts: The Case of Ubmeje in Northern Sweden

Indigenous Place-Names in (Post)colonial Contexts: The Case of Ubmeje in Northern Sweden

Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada.

Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada.

Indigenous place names: the cognitive-matrix analysis

Indigenous place names: the cognitive-matrix analysis

“Land”

“Land” Cheryll Glotfelty (bio) The keyword I would like to discuss is “land” because land is the bedrock of culture. As we go forward into the future we ought to keep in mind the fundamental reality that culture exists in a biophysical, ecological context, which we can call “land.” There are many different definitions of land, each implying a specific paradigm or worldview. Today I would like to invoke Aldo Leopold’s view of land, which he offers in his book A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949, before the Western Literature Association even existed. By appealing to Leopold, I am obviously looking backward in time, but I would contend that our culture—and the WLA—have yet to make the paradigm shift implicit in his writing. “Conservation is getting nowhere,” Leopold laments, “because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” (xviii–xix; emphasis added). Elsewhere Leopold argues that the image of “man the conqueror” must be replaced with that of “man the biotic citizen” and that the image of “land the slave and servant” must yield to that of “land the collective organism” (260–61). In the dominant paradigm, we are separate from the land, and we live on it; in Leopold’s paradigm, we are part of the land, and we live in it. I would like us to think about what it means for us as readers, writers, and critics to be a “biotic citizen” of the “land community,” a member of the “collective organism.” Even though Leopold’s vision is very grounded, I find these concepts to be abstract and hard to translate into literary critical practice. For me, bioregionalism is a helpful approach for turning Leopold’s ecological precepts into practice. A key insight of bioregionalism [End Page 45] is that our interactions with the land community always occur in a particular place. The bioregional perspective, then, asks us to reimagine place in ecological terms. For example, under the still-dominant paradigm, Harrah’s Casino is located at 219 North Center St., Reno, Nevada, USA. However, the bioregional address of Harrah’s is in the Truckee Meadows, two hundred meters north of the Truckee River, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains of the North American continent. Let me propose three critical projects for western American literary studies that we might pursue in the next fifty years by adopting Leopold’s notion of land within a bioregional frame: 1. Remap western American literature. Organize an anthology or a study of western American literature by bioregion rather than by chronology, theme, or geopolitical region. This project might entail doing some new naming or reactivating of Indigenous place names. 2. Write species/habitat studies. We need many more studies like Michael P. Cohen’s A Garden of Bristlecones: Tales of Change in the Great Basin and Laurie Ricou’s Salal: Listening for the Northwest Understory. These transdisciplinary studies of particular places combine cultural studies, science, and environmental history to illuminate our relationship with another member of the biotic community. 3. Make Critical Regionalism more ecologically engaged. Critical Regionalism appears to be intellectually detached from ecological perspectives and from transnational environmental issues. I think it is time to make critical regionalism become more eco-critical. Or, perhaps, taking a cue from Alex Hunt’s conference paper, “Working Toward a Critical Bioregionalism,” to work toward a critical bioregionalism. [End Page 46] I’d like to leave you with two questions. The first is one I’ve already asked: What might it mean for our practice as readers, writers, and critics to be a “biotic citizen” of the “land community”? And, second, what critical project might you add to the ones I’ve mentioned? Cheryll Glotfelty cheryll glotfelty is a professor of literature and environment and chair of the Arboretum Board at the University of Nevada, Reno. She coedited The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology; The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place; and The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of...