kigon’ meaning ‘Color of Blood Lake.’ Years later it became known as ‘Red Lake.’ (Web Site #1)When I heard this story, 12 years ago, it came from the mouth of my father’s good friend, an Ojibwa man, named Henry Meekis. I still remember everyone sitting in front of him while he told the story. His passion for the story permeated the room and we were all captivated by it.The importance of place-name study lies in the light it sheds on the cultural history and heritage of the indigenous people. Many place-names in are drawn from Indigenous languages such as Apache Cree, Ojibwa etc. Researching place-names of Indigenous origin requires an understanding of Indigenous principles of naming places, of the application of names to geographic areas, and for each name the historical circumstances that have taken place there. Basso came to realize this can all become very challenging due to language barriers, he writes, I foreseen that my failure to pronounce the stubborn Apache place name would be interpreted by him as a lack of respect. And never had I suspected that using an Apache place-name might be heard by those who used them as repeating verbatim—actually quoting—the speech of the early ancestors. (Basso 1999: 10)Basso describes ‘place-names’ as a “universal tool of the historical imagination and in some societies, if not the great majority, it is surely among the basic of all.” (5) The Apache people associate places with events that have taken place in history. Basso describes many of these place-names in his book and each of the stories tells a tale of history and morality in connection with the environment. I found it extremely interesting that no dates were attached to the stories. I believe this is because time frames take away from the meaning of the story. Old narratives, in a sense, become less important because we think of them as old and out-dated.The...
