Polk County IA Archives History - Books .....Name And Its Origin 1898
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Book Title: Annals Of Polk County, Iowa And City Of Des Moines

CHAPTER II.

NAME AND ITS ORIGIN.

DES MOINES was naturally named from the river upon whose banks it was located.
As to the derivation of the name of the river, several theories have been
advanced. The most generally accepted is that its true meaning is the River of
the Monks, or, in French, Riviere des Moines. This is supposed to have
originated from the presence of Catholic Monks at a very early day, at, or near,
the mouth of the river. In fact, it is known that many years ago Trappist
Monks—Moines de la Trappe—resided on or near the mounds on the American bottom
in Illinois, not very far south of the mouth of the Des Moines River. These
monks no doubt made excursions to this point, and perhaps traveled some distance
up the river in their self-denying and successful religious work among the
Indians of that time. According to Nicollet, the name Des Moines is a corruption
of an Indian word, signifying, "at the road," which became in later times by the
inhabitants associated with the name of the Trappist Monks before mentioned.

   But, if the account of Marquette and Joliet is to be trusted, there is no
doubt the original Indian name of the river was Moning-guines, and on the
ancient French map it appears as Moingona. This is a French corruption of the
Algonquin word, Mikonang, signifying "the road." Fulton, in his history of "The
Red Men of Iowa," states this, and adds:

   "When the French first established trading posts on the Mississippi, they
applied the name Moin to the Indians who resided on the river called Des Moines,
and in speaking of that river would say, 'la riviere des Moines,' or 'the "River
of the Moin.' Long after this, in some way, the name became associated with that
of the Trappist Monks (Moines de la Trappe), a people who were living with the
Indians on what was known as the 'American Bottom' in Illinois. After this the
idea prevailed that the true reading of the 'riviere des Moin,' was 'riviere des
Monies,' or 'River of the Monks,' And so the name Des Moines- began to appear on
modern maps. The first part of the name, des, is clearly French, while the
latter part has been corrupted from the original Moin to the orthography of the
French word Moines, the pronunciation of which is the same."

   Father Kempker, in his "History of the Catholic Church in Iowa," says:

   "In the spring of the year, 1720, the Capuchin Pere Le Grand drafted for the
Capuchin monastary at Dijon a terrestrial globe, which is now preserved in the
public library in Dijon, in France, on which the Mississippi, Missouri,
Illinois, Des Moines and St. Peter rivers are plainly marked, and special
prominence is given to the Des Moines River, which there has the name of 'R. des
Moingona'— River of the Moingonas. From this Indian tribe the present name of
the river has its derivation, and not, as some have presumed, from 'R. des
Moines'—River of the Monks. The Indian tribe, set forth on this, in Iowa and
Minnesota are the Iowas, Pawnees, Otoes, Pottawattamies, Omahas, Sioux, Tintons,
Esamps, Mandans, with Iowa, Kickapoo and Moingona rivers, and Sioux Lake.

   "Tradition speaks of the Indian custom, from ages immemorial, of using a path
from the Des Moines Rapids on the Mississippi, westward, and the very name of
the people of this river has reference to the Indian highway, the Moingona,
signifying 'The People by the Way.' When the early settlers took possession of
the land they could yet see plain evidences of this Indian trail leading to the
Des Moines and beyond it to the west. It must have been at some former period a
great thoroughfare, as it was worn in many places on level ground for miles six
inches in depth."

   The Dakota or Sioux name of the Des Moines  River was Inyan-sha-sha-watpa, or
'Redstone River.' This name was formed from the Dakota, words inyan, stone;
sha-sha, red, and watpa, river.

   The Sacs and Foxes, tribes which belonged to the Algonquin race, and spoke a
language quite different from that of the Sioux, called the river Ke-sauk-sepo,
or Ke-sauk-kee-sepo, after the national name of the Sauk-kee or Sac tribe. This
name is interpreted as meaning "The River of the Sauk-kee" the termination scpo
meaning a river or stream in the Algonquin language. At the beginning of the
present century the Sacs had a village near the mouth of the river and hence the
name Kee-sauk-kee-sepo.

   The late Hon. Charles Negus, of Fairfield, an early settler and close
observer and student of all pertaining to Iowa and especially her early history,
contended that the river was named from the number of pre-historic mounds found
along or near to the valley of the river. That its true meaning should be: "The
River of the Mounds." Some years ago he wrote so eloquently and truly of the
river, that we will quote a few paragraphs:

   "Nearly every state has some one particular river which especially attracts
the attention of its citizens, on which their minds delight to dwell, about
which they bestow their praise. Iowa has the beautiful river Des Moines on which
her citizens delight to bestow their eulogies. More has been done, said and
thought about this river than all the other rivers in the state. In beauty of
native scenery, in productiveness of soil, in mineral wealth, and in the many
things which attract attention and add to the comfort of man, the valley of The
Des Moines is not surpassed by any locality in the world.

   "The banks of this great water course and the surrounding country, bear the
marks of having been the home of a numerous people, centuries in the past, and
that this people were possessed of many of the arts of civilized life. But of
what race of people they were, and of the acts and scenes which have taken place
in the beautiful valley, we may imagine, but probably never know. Of their
habits and customs they have left some marks; but still there is wrapped around
these evidences of their doings—a mystery that is hard to solve."

   In this connection it may be well to quote something from the great
historian, Bancroft, in relation to the first white discoverers of the river and
its name. He says: "Marquette and Joliet were the first white men to set foot on
the soil of Iowa, and that this occurred on June 25, 1673, some 222 years ago.
On this day these two explorers were floating down the Mississippi River, having
reached it from Lake Michigan, by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. They traveled in
two birch bark canoes." The historian continued his history as follows:

   "They entered happily the great river, with a joy that could not be
expressed; and the two birch bark canoes, raising their happy sails under new
skies and to unknown breezes, floated down the calm magnificence of the ocean
stream, over the broad, clear sandbars, the resort of numerous waterfowl—gliding
past islets that swelled from the bosom of the stream, with their tufts of
massive thickets, and between the wide plains of Illinois and Iowa, all
garlanded with majestic forests, or checkered by island groves and the open
vastness of the prairie.

   "About sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin, the western bank of
the Mississippi bore on its sands the trail of men; a little footpath was
discerned leading into a beautiful prairie; and, leaving the canoes, Joliet and
Marquette resolved alone to brave a meeting" with the savages. After walking six
miles they beheld a village on the banks of the river, and two others on the
slope, at a distance of a mile and a half from the first. The river was the
Mou-in-gon-e-na, or Moingona, from which we have corrupted the name Des Moines.
Marquette and Joliet were the first white men who trod the soil of Iowa.
Commending themselves to God, they uttered a loud cry. The Indians hear; four
old men advance slowly to meet them, bearing the peacepipe, brilliant with many
colored plumes. 'We are Illinois,' said they—that is, when translated—'We are
men;' and they offered the calumet. An aged chief received them at his cabin
with upraised hands, exclaiming, 'How beautiful is the sun, Frenchmen, when thou
comest to visit us! Our whole village awaits thee; thou shalt enter in peace
into all our dwellings.' And the pilgrims were followed by the devouring gaze of
an astonished crowd.

   "At the great council Marquette published to them the one true God, their
creator. He spoke also of the great captain of the French, the governor of
Canada, who had chastised the five nations and commanded peace; and he
questioned them respecting the Mississippi and the tribes that possessed its
banks. For the messengers, who announced the subjection of the Iroquois, a
magnificent festival was prepared of hominy and fish, and the choicest viands
from the prairies.

   "After six days' delay, and invitations to new visits, the chieftain of the
tribe, with hundreds of warriors, attended the strangers to their canoes; and
selecting a peacepipe embellished with the head and neck of brilliant birds, and
all feathered over with plumage of various hues, they hung around Marquette, the
mysterious arbiter of peace and war, the sacred calumet, a safeguard among the
nations."

   A somewhat singular fact in history is that stated by our deceased fellow
townsman, A. R. Fulton, in his admirable history, "The Red Men of Iowa,"
published in 1882, in Des Moines. Mr. Fulton says:

   "While the whites on the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia were subject to
all the horrors of a merciless Indian war, some two thousand people of European
descent were living in comparative safety among the tribes; so far to the west,
that to the people of the provinces east of the Alleghenies, it was a strange
and unknown region. Even before Pennsylvania was settled by white men, the
daring Norman Jesuit, La Salle, had built a fort in the country of the Illinois,
and long before the end of the eighteenth century the black robe of the Jesuit
missionary was known in every Indian village throughout the vast region, from
the Miami to the Mississippi, and from the lakes to the Ohio. The principal
white settlements in this region at the date of the Pontiac War—1763-5— were at
Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Fort Chartres, now in Illinois, and Vincennes, now in
Indiana."

   Being so near at so early a date, and remaining for so many years, it is not
improbable, but rather most probable, these early French settlers and explorers,
not far from the middle of the last century, visited the Valley of the Des
Moines, and extended their explorations along the same up to if not north of the
present site of the City of Des Moines. There is little doubt some of these
Frenchmen were the first white settlers in this section, though there is no
written history to prove what can be safely regarded as a fact.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ANNALS OF POLK COUNTY, IOWA,
AND
CITY OF DES MOINES
BY WILL PORTER.

"And this volume, dedicated to its people, sets forth in attractive style all
the facts and incidents that go to make up the history of which all citizens are
justly proud."
—Major Hoyt Sherman.

GEO. A. MILLLER PRINTING COMPANY,
PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS,
DES MOINES, IOWA,
1898.


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