An Investigation of Toponyms and Land Cover of Missoula County, Montana
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University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2021 Mapping Ethnophysiographies: An Investigation of Toponyms and Land Cover of Missoula County, Montana Emily L. Cahoon University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Part of the Geographic Information Sciences Commons, Human Geography Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Cahoon, Emily L., "Mapping Ethnophysiographies: An Investigation of Toponyms and Land Cover of Missoula County, Montana" (2021). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11764. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11764 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAPPING ETHNOPHYSIOGRAPHIES: AN INVESTIGATION OF TOPONYMS AND LAND COVER OF MISSOULA COUNTY, MONTANA By Emily L. Cahoon Bachelor of Arts in English, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga TN, 2014 Bachelor of Science in Anthropology, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga TN, 2017 Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology, General Option University of Montana Missoula, MT May 2021 Committee Members: Dr. Anna Prentiss, Chair Department of Anthropology Dr. Irene Appelbaum Department of Anthropology Linguistics Program Dr. Cheyenne Laue Department of Anthropology Kevin McManigal M.S. Department of Geography Cahoon 2021 | i Abstract This thesis investigates the ethnophysiography of Missoula County, Montana via place names. Toponyms and landscape have been observed to have a relationship that can be studied through many lenses. Ethnophysiography, the study of how language and landscape relate to each other via human conceptualization, is a lens that was applied to this thesis because it recognizes the embodied information that toponyms carry and investigates landscape accordingly. Thus, the following research seeks to understand if ethnophysiographic diversity exists between toponyms in the Salish and English languages of Missoula County, Montana by analyzing place names and land cover in GIS and analyzing the data for a Zipfian distribution. I research, collect, and analyze the secondary information available on Missoula County names and land covers in order to empirically examine this ethnophysiographic relationship. Cahoon 2021 | ii Acknowledgments The opportunity to become a graduate candidate and earn my Master of Arts from the University of Montana could not have come at a more significant time in all our lives. Having been a dream of mine for some time, I would not have gotten far without the people in my life who helped me to build this research, guide me through mental and academic obstacles, and supported me during those times of low hopes with hugs from afar. Thank you to my fellow graduate students for all the post-theory happy hour shindigs before the pandemic was even a thought. Thank you to working out problems in GIS with me. I’ll never forget the joys of learning new tricks from fellow cartographers and archaeologists. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the heritage, culture, and language of Montana and for talking with me about my project. The beauty of this land and people runs deep in time and it has been a privilege to study alongside you. Thank you to my roommates who coped with me through some crazy ups and downs along the way, listened to me read and reread pieces of my thesis out loud, and for the late nights spent finding the best words on many thesaurus websites. Thank you to my friends and family who listened to my struggles, shared your experience and advice, and celebrated with me at every accomplishment along the away. Your support has kept me strong. Thank you to my Map Missoula people whose genuine excitedness and endearment for my research has kept me excited too. Thank you to my professors who always made time to discuss my research and offer advice for researching a topic so new and cross-disciplinary. And lastly, thank you to my committee members. Kevin, thank you for all the knowledge you’ve taught me during my time at UMT and problem-solving methods in GIS. I always look forward to catching up and nerding out about cartography, space, and so much more. As it was my primary goal to use GIS in my thesis from the beginning, you have offered your guidance through this entire process, and I will always and forever judge a map by its projection now. Cheyenne, the skills you’ve taught me and the support you’ve given me have been invaluable. Thank you for sharing your classroom and allowing me to experience being on the other side of the desk. Thank you for all the late night and early morning Zoom calls and advise when I just didn’t know what to do and thank you for keeping me on my toes and out of my comfort zone… by which I mean math. Irene, thank you for all the coffee meetings to discuss linguistics, philosophy, and of course, my thesis. Learning from you has been amazing and it has been wonderful to have you as a committee member for my thesis. You keep my thoughts on track on paper and force me to explain what I mean. I look forward to our next visit to Café Dolce for coffee and great conversation. Thank you, Anna for taking me on as a graduate student and filling the role as Committee Chair. Working with you and learning from you has been exciting and fulfilling. You offered me peace in times where I underestimated thesis tasks and confidence in my abilities as a graduate Cahoon 2021 | iii candidate that made the success of this thesis possible. Learning from you during my time here at UMT has been rewarding in more ways than one. Cahoon 2021 | iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents................................................................................................................................................... v Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter One: Missoula County and an Ethnophysiographic Study ......................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 Landscape vs. Land Cover vs. Land Use ..................................................................................................................... 2 Inspiration and Sense of Place ................................................................................................................................... 4 Employing a Phenomenological Paradigm ................................................................................................................ 5 Spatial Area and Population Demographics .............................................................................................................. 6 History and Prehistory of Missoula, Montana ......................................................................................................... 10 The Salish and Pend d’Oreille Native American Tribes ............................................................................................ 13 Research Parameters .............................................................................................................................................. 19 Thesis Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter Two: Hypotheses and Test Expectations ................................................................................................. 26 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 26 Hypotheses .............................................................................................................................................................. 26 Test Expectations .................................................................................................................................................... 27 Null-Hypotheses ...................................................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter Three: Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 31 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 31 Ethnophysiography.................................................................................................................................................