ST. LOUIS – Missouri features many treasures residents and visitors love, including the Gateway Arch, food, culture, and its large variety of caves. How did the Show-Me-State get its name?
The Missouri name was initially recorded during an exploration down the Mississippi River by French missionary Jacques Marquette and explorer Louis Jolliet in 1673. According to the Missouri State Parks, when the duo came across an unknown river from the northwest, they encountered a large tribe of Native Americans that lived upstream.
The tribe was named the Missouri. According to the Missouri Secretary of State, the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology has stated that the phrase was referred to as the “towns of the large canoes,” and other native people often referred to the tribe as “wooden canoe people” or “he of the big canoe.” The Missouri were considered to be prairie dwellers and lived in massive, mat-covered houses that held 15–25 people each.
The newly discovered river Marquette and Joliet encountered was eventually named the Missouri River, in honor of the tribe living beside it. The tribe contributed significantly to the fur trade and often stopped traders from travelling through the Missouri River to obtain different items.
As European settlers began to enter the area, disease and warfare with other tribes took a toll on the Missouri tribe. By 1758, about 750 Missouri remained alive before the surviving members of the tribe were moved to Nebraska, according to the Missouri State Parks.
With all of the contributions the tribe made to the region, The Missouri name began to stick as the region became known as the Missouri Territory in 1812, before eventually being officially adopted as the state of Missouri in 1821.
Today, Missouri is populated with over 6 million people that call it home. Whether residents refer to the state as “Missour-ee” and “Missour-uh,” there are over 68,000 square miles that can be explored.
