lake names collection

The lake names collection is a Kiplingesque and subjective attempt to explain how the lakes got their names.

Stare at a lake from space via satellites or two dimensional maps. They start to look like things. This is how some people interact with clouds [cloudappreciationsociety.org].

When first nation Algonquin people made lake maps they would bite shapes into birch bark. This was called Mazinibaganjigan. The shapes they made became two dimensional shapes.

Prehistoric cultures saw serpents, dragons and bears in the shapes of stars. Ptolemy's big bear was based on earlier Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian astronomical myths [Almagest]. The ancient Jewish tradition also saw a bear followed by its cubs [Job 38:32]. In Hindu culture the seven stars in ursa major are the seven rishis (Vedic sages) from the ancient period. Native Americans saw also saw a bear and sometimes hunters. The Finnish constellation is a salmon weir (divinely related to a big bear). Later European traditions saw the stars as tools: a plough, wagon and drinking vessel. When van Gogh recreated the constellation in 1888 he just saw big splotches of yellow light [Starry Night Over the Rhôone]. The stars were officially recognized by science as a collection in 1930 when Delporte of the International Astronomical Union defined the constellation's boundaries. The stars have been used by political movements like the Irish Citizen Army (1916) state flags (Alaska) and the Madrid coat of Arms has had a bear with seven stars on it since 1212.

People have been making animal shapes out of star maps since before history. The Algonquin's have been making bark maps for thousands of years. The two dimensional shapes which started on these Mazinibaganjigan maps might have helped name the bodies of water which were mapped.

As Europeans discovered North America, the maps that they drew might have helped them name the bodies of water which they encountered. Every lake name has a story. For instance Lac du Flambeau describes the meeting of French trappers and Ojibwe fishermen who were hunting by torchlight. The name name seems ancient. Probably because the two parties were conquered by the Anglo-Americans following the Seven Years War.

Other lake names might be even older. They might be trans-cultural. They might be without history. After the Americans, English, French and the Ojibwe are forgotten the next people on Lac du Flambeau won't describe the lake as a historical interaction. They will describe the lake based on physical characteristics like water temperature, clarity, the fish that live there and... how it would look from space if it were mapped out in two dimensions.

The lake names collection looks for the true names of lakes--as seen from above. The history of place names is often a story of language and control: Tsaritsyn (1589-1925) becomes Stalingrad (1925-1961) becomes Volgograd (1961-today).

A different way to do this starts with natural places (not manmade places). It is ahistorical and subjective. Look at a picture of a lake from space. Look at a map. Do you see a serpent or a bear? Does the shape you see correlate with the name of the lake? Ojibwe, French, English and American viewers from four different centuries can look at a map and see the same shapes hidden in plain sight.

Lake names hopes to build compassion by deconstructing cultural narratives of place. There are some things that everybody can see regardless of their cultural lexicon. Stars look like animals from Earth. Clouds look like animals from Earth. Lakes look like animals from space. That's probably true for some people in every culture.

The collection uses DNR maps to view the lake from space. The lake names are traced back by historical documents like the WPA Guide to Wisconsin and the Jones/McVean county history from 1924.