Alabama, Chicago, Michigan, Wyoming, Yosemite.
Say them out loud and you are already speaking variations of the languages of this land’s first peoples, often without knowing what the words mean or who first spoke them.
Alabama, also spelled Alibamu, comes from the Alibamu people. It is thought to derive from Choctaw for “plant-cutters,” a nod to farming the land, while Yosemite, famous today for the national park, is pronounced Yohhe’meti in Miwok.
As the United States marks 250 years since the July 4 Declaration of Independence, thousands of US cities, states, rivers and lakes still carry Indigenous names. Al Jazeera traces 50 of those surviving names, exploring their original languages, meanings and pronunciations.
Listen to the first languages
Tap any card to hear the place name spoken by a Native American, and discover its meaning and origin. Swipe through all 50.