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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>   By statehood that
> few thousand was a very small percentage of the
> population.  From that point the incoming population
> was overwhelmingly English speaking.


Which has little to do with place names.  Notice the area covered by the 
Louisiana Purchase (1803).  You find many of the people there called Sioux 
(but 
pronounced Soo), and Nez Perce. You find Illinois, Arkansas, and Missouri, 
all 
French spellings.  Any bit of Indian culture not described by a word in the 
native language was invariably French (such as 'travois').  Ft. Laramie  was 
La 
Ramee, the river is the Platte (French for 'shallow'), and even the word 
"prarie" is French.  Need I even review what the mountain range called "Les 
Trois 
Tetons" means?   

A very many place names, even very far North of Mossouri were because French 
was spoken there and the fact that the language changed in later years didn't 
alter that.   Just as La Ramee corrupted into Laramie (and many other 
examples), often some feature that caused a place like a ford to be called 
"Niger" 
corrupted to a more aglecized word.

It is the common thing to look for the pejorative when none is there.  Years 
ago in many places Brazil Nuts were called 'nigger toes'.  Most of the nuts 
don't come from Brazil but rather Bolivia and the informal term for them is 
'negritos' = "little black [nuts]" which corrupted into English as nigger 
toes.




> 
> Are you saying that "if that usage is common in
> Tennassee then it must be commen in Missouri" ?

Ah, if non-sequitur could be bottled and sold!  The use of French and Spanish 
WAS common in Missouri.   </HTML>