university press of kansas

Written with scholarly verve and skill, proving once again that erudite scrivening can be enjoyable reading.＂ Library Journal ＂Excellent. . . . It will prove helpful to both the curious amateur and to the serious student of place-names.＂ American West The great variety of Indian place-names in Kansas resulted from attempts to create a permanent American Indian frontier in the West. Beyond Missouri and Arkansas lay the Great American Desert, and Indians from the East were urged to settle there, supposedly free from the white man’s frontier. Consequently, Kansas has Indian place-names not only from its early Native inhabitants (Siouan, Caddoan, and Shoshonean peoples) but also from the Algonquians, Iroquois, and other eastern tribes, and even a few groups of Indigenous peoples from the West. The study of place-names has many facets-linguistics, geography, legends, literature, and folklore. Avoiding the straitjacket of purely linguistic treatment, John Rydjord grouped the place-names into chapters based mainly on tribes or linguistic families. He treated the names in their historical context, delving into the circumstances that caused them to be given to each political and topographical feature and including a variety of interpretations, even contradictions. John Rydjord (1893-1994) was Professor of History and Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School, Wichita State University. He wrote several books and many articles on the history of Mexico and the American West.