The excrement-faces
When federally-employed writers assembled in 1937 to write the WPA's "Guide to the Hawkeye State," one of them described the origin of the city name "Des Moines" this way...The name Des Moines is probably traceable to the mound builders who long ago lived near the banks of the rivers. The Indians called the main stream Moingona (River of the Mounds). French voyageurs, who followed Marquette and Joliet into the Midwest, called it La Riviere des Moines, from the monks who once dwelt in huts beside the water. It was spelled phonetically De Moin, De Moyen, Demoine, and Des Moines. The term, De Moyen, translated as "middle," was understood to refer to the principal river between the Mississippi and the Missouri. Another variation in the meaning is "the less" or "the smaller," referring to a small tribe of Indians living on the river.
Noncommittal-- and then each theory eventually debunked by a visiting linguist from Indiana University who suggested that the name derived from the Peoria Indians' unflattering name for their Miami-Illinois tribal rivals, the Moingoana, or "mooyiinkweena," meaning "excrement-faces."
As the Register reporter indicated in the story linked above, the Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau is unlikely to take the "excrement-faces" theme and run with it during its promotion of the city. Perhaps we should consider renaming one of the local sports teams though. Making this name change to, say, our popular minor-league baseball club wouldn't sell a helluva lot of caps, t-shirts, or foam fingers, and "Des Moines Excrement-Faces" would be a slight redundancy (like "Philadelphia Phillies"), but it would still be less embarrassing than being called the "Cubs."
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Way to go, slugger: The wife of Cardinals hitting coach and former firstbaseman Mark McGwire gave birth to triplets, all baby girls, on Tuesday. Does the big guy still have a flair for the dramatic or what? Just for fun, they should name one of them "Interstate 70".
posted by CM @ 5:42 PM
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