[Acajack]

Originally Posted by CityTech

The Odawa people are actually indigenous to an area much further west than the Ottawa River region; their homeland is in the Sault Ste. Marie/upper Michigan area. I believe the reason why Europeans used their name for the Ottawa River (and subsequently the city, which was named after the river), was because the river led to their homeland. The name Kitchissippi actually comes from the Algonquin language, which is closely related to the Odawa language.

Using the modern writing rules of the Algonquin language, the name is actually spelt Kìchì Sìbì. They've actually proposed naming the future LRT station adjacent to that beach and lookout Kìchì Sìbì for this reason. IMO, if they're going to do that, the ward, beach, and lookout should all be respelled to Kìchì Sìbì as well.

Kìchì Sìbì / Kitchissippi is actually the same etymology as the Mississippi River in the United States; it comes from the closely related Ojibwe language. The Ojibwe homeland extends into the upper midwest of the United States, near the headwaters of the Mississippi, which is the part of the Mississippi River the Europeans discovered first, hence why they named the river from their language. As a result, the US state of Mississippi has the odd fact of being named from a word in a language of a people whose homeland is thousands of kilometres away from them.

There's also a Mississippi River in Ontario that is a tributary of the Ottawa River, originating in Mazinaw Lake in Bon Echo Park and flowing past Carleton Place and Almonte before flowing into the Ottawa near Arnprior. It's a pretty small and piddly river compared to the Ottawa River (or even other tributaries of the Ottawa like the Madawaska or the Gatineau), so it's a little odd that it would be named "Great River". It's unknown how the name Mississippi came to be applied to this river; it's possible that Europeans asked native people "what's this called" and the natives mistakenly believed they were asking about the name of the Ottawa River. The river originates from Mazinaw Lake, whose name is derived from Algonquin, so it's also possible the river was called "Mazinawsippi" (ie. "River to Mazinaw Lake") and Europeans misheard that as Mississippi.

Thanks for this!