Yoknapatawpha, Other Native Place Names Defined in New Book

With nearly 600 communities, creeks and other landmarks bearing witness, Mississippi is home to one of the nation's largest inventories of Native-American place names.

A new book researched and written by a Mississippi State University graduate student provides the first-ever comprehensive resource translating these locales whose identities are derived from an indigenous culture. Along the way, he also corrects more than a few errors resulting from European-American mispronunciations.

"'Tippah,' for instance, often has been believed to be the name of a Chickasaw chief's wife," said Keith A. Baca of Starkville, a master's student in applied anthropology. His book, "Native American Place Names in Mississippi," is published by University Press of Mississippi.

In the 140-page publication, Baca not only compiles a list of names and translations from all known resources, but provides nearly 100 translations of his own. Tippah, a Northeast Mississippi county that hugs the Tennessee state line and has Ripley as the county seat, is among the latter group.

"My research shows that there is no historical record of such a person as the chief's wife," he said. "Instead, the word 'tippah' seems more accurately to be translated "to eat one another." There's no record to explain the more sinister derivation, he added.

Formerly an archivist with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the 1983 MSU anthropology graduate became interested in writing the book early in 2001 after realizing there was no published source on Mississippi's Indian place names.

"I found an unpublished dissertation from 1939, and I've gone back through other resources over 100 years old to do research," he said. "In compiling the available research, I've sorted out names by comparing to published Choctaw and Chickasaw dictionaries, as well as adding my own translations."

In addition to an alphabetized list of names with pronunciations, "Native American Place Names" also includes several sidebars designated as "The Native American Connection." The small essays provide historical synopses of such important landmarks as the Nanih Waiya mound in Winston County or the story of a mythic Choctaw-Creek stickball game on the banks of the Noxubee River.

Baca says one of his favorite of the nearly 600 names in his book is Butputter Creek, probably a corruption of a Choctaw name. Found in Eastern Grenada County near Gore Springs, it appears to derive from words for "sumac" and "ample" or "spreading out," he explained.

Intended for all readers whose interest in Mississippi history may range from deep to passing, the book highlights both familiar and less familiar names. There are the familiar Chickasaw and Tishomingo counties, for example, to such obscure names such as Lucknuck Creek in Calhoun County or Tuscahoma, an extinct community in Grenada County.

One of the famous literary adaptations of a Native American place name is Yoknapatawpha, the original name of a river that runs through several North Mississippi counties, including Lafayette. It has become famous as a fictional county in novelist William Faulkner's works. The river's name is now shortened to Yocona.

Baca translates "Yoknapatawpha" to mean "plowed land" or "plowed ground."

In addition to the recent "Native American Place Names in Mississippi," Baca also is the author of "Indian Mounds of Mississippi: A Visitor's Guide."

Photo of Baca and a place name sign is available.