A Gros Ventre Indian encampment on the Fort Belknap Reservation, Montana showing a woman seated in front of a hearth, man on horseback, an American flag, and tipis
12 November 2021
A number of Indigenous people dwell or have dwelled in the state that is now called Montana. These include the Blackfeet, Crow, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Chippewa-Cree, and Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa. Additionally, peoples who have historically dwelled on the land include the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikira, Nez Perce, and Shoshone. This list is not all-inclusive.
As with many states, there is no single Indigenous name for the territory that is now known as Montana, which is a settler-colonist creation. The name Montana comes from the Spanish montaña (mountain), which in turn is from the Latin montanus, an adjective meaning mountainous. In Latin, montana could also function as a noun meaning mountainous region. The Spanish used the name montaña del norte to refer to the northern portion of the Rocky Mountains.
The name Montana first crops up in English use as a proposed name for what would eventually become the Idaho Territory (Cf. Idaho). From the Albany Journal of 12 February 1863:
The House proceeded to the consideration of the bill reported from the Committee on Territories, to provide for the temporary government of the Territory of Montana, contiguous to the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington.
But within a month the Senate would change the proposed name to Idaho. From the Buffalo Morning Express of 4 March 1863:
The House concurred in the Senate’s amendments to the bill establishing the territorial government of Montana, changing its name to Idaho.
And the following year, Montana was again proposed, this time for the new territory that the was being organized out of a portion of the Idaho territory. From the Milwaukee Sentinel of 24 February 1864:
MONTANA—The new territory of Montana, which the present Congress is organizing, embraces all that portion of the Idaho territory east of the Rocky mountains.
It is this territory that became the state of Montana in 1889.
Of note is the US Senate debate of 31 March 1864 on organization and naming of the Montana Territory. The senators conclude that the name Montana is from Latin. Their conclusion is incorrect, but their discussion sheds light on attitudes toward naming places. Of particular note is the desire to appropriate an Indigenous name, creating the semblance of historical continuity between the Indigenous and settler-colonist and legitimacy for the latter. The debate also ignores the Spanish history of the name and region:
Mr. SUMNER. The name of this new Territory—Montana—strikes me as very peculiar. I wish to ask the chairman of the committee what has suggested that name? It seems to me it must have been borrowed from some novel or other. I do not know how it originated.
Mr. WADE. I cannot tell anything about that I do not know but that it may have been borrowed from a novel. I would rather borrow from the Indians, if I could find any proper Indian name.
Mr. SUMNER. I was going to suggest that in giving a name to this Territory, which is to be hereafter the name of a State of the Union, I would rather take the name from the soil, a good Indian name.
Mr. WADE. Suggest one and I will agree to it[.]
Mr. SUMNER. I am not familiar enough with the country to do so.
Mr. HOWARD. I will say to the Senator from Massachusetts that I was equally puzzled when I saw the name in the bill, and I labored under the same difficulty which my honorable friend from Massachusetts seems to be in. I was obliged to turn to my old Latin dictionary to see if there was any meaning to the word Montana, and I found there was.
Mr. SUMNER. What was it?
Mr. HOWARD. It is a very classical word, pure Latin. It means mountainous region, a mountainous country.
Mr. WADE: Then the name is well adapted to the Territory.
Mr. HOWARD: You will find it is used by Livy and some of the other Latin historians, which is no small praise.
Mr. WADE: I do not care anything about the name. If there was none in Latin or in Indian I suppose we have a right to make a name; certainly just as good a right to make it as anybody else. It is a good name enough.
Sources:
“By Telegraph.” Buffalo Morning Express (New York), 4 March 1863, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020. Oxfordreference.com.
“House of Representatives.” Albany Journal (New York), 12 February 1863, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Lewis, Charlton T. and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1933, s.v. montanus, adj.
Malone, Michael P. and Richard B. Roeder. Montana: A History of Two Centuries. Seattle: U of Washington Press, 1976, 95–96. Google Books.
Milwaukee Sentinel (Wisconsin), 24 February 1864, 1. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“Montana Indians Their History and Location.” Montana Office of Public Instruction, Division of Indian Education, April 2009.
“Territory of Montana,” 31 March 1864. The Congressional Globe, Thirty-Eighth Congress, First Session, 1 April 1864, 1362.
Image credit: Unknown photographer, Detroit Publishing Co., 1906. Library of Congress. Public domain image.