Algoma is a placename given to many different places throughout the United States and Canada. Examples include Algoma District, Ontario

Algoma District, Ontario

Algoma District is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1858 comprising territory as far west as Minnesota...

, Algoma, Oregon

Algoma, Oregon

Algoma is an unincorporated community on the east shore of Upper Klamath Lake, in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. It is about north of the city of Klamath Falls on U.S. Route 97. Algoma was named for the Algoma Lumber Company.- History :...

, Algoma, Wisconsin

Algoma, Wisconsin

Algoma is a city in Kewaunee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,357 at the 2000 census. Algoma is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, and Algoma Township, Michigan

Algoma Township, Michigan

Algoma Township is a civil township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 7,596.Algoma was originally settled in 1843...

. Algoma also lends its name to companies such as Algoma Steel

Algoma Steel

See also Algoma Essar Steel Algoma is an integrated primary steel producer located on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Its products are sold in Canada and the United States as well as overseas. Algoma Steel was founded in 1902 by Francis Clergue, an American entrepreneur...

 and Algoma Central Railway

Algoma Central Railway

The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, with a branch line to Michipicoten. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads...

Origin of the Word

The origin of the word Algoma is not entirely clear; the following are definitions culled from several different sources

1. The word Algoma was invented as a placename by Henry Schoolcraft
   Henry Schoolcraft
   Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish...
   
   . Goma
   Goma (disambiguation)
   Goma can mean:* Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and associated facilities:**University of Goma**Roman Catholic Diocese of Goma**Goma International Airport* Goma , a character in the Legend of Zelda game series...
   
   comes from the Algonquian suffix for lake, while Schoolcraft took the al prefix from the word Algonquian
   Algonquian languages
   The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
   
   .
2. Another definition for the word states that Algoma actually comes from A'Goma, or snow shoe (Potawatomi
   Potawatomi
   The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
   
   ). Source: Rev. E. P. Wheeler; A. Skinner in Milwaukee Public Museum Bulletin. r.6 p.399
3. Yet another definition from the Algoma, Wisconsin
   Algoma, Wisconsin
   Algoma is a city in Kewaunee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,357 at the 2000 census. Algoma is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
   
    Chamber of Commerce claims that Algoma is an Indian word meaning park of flowers. Several web sites that provide meanings for the names of children and pets state that Algoma means valley of flowers.
4. The history of the town of Algoma, Mississippi
   Mississippi
   Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
   
    contains a reference to Algoma as a Chickasaw
   Chickasaw
   The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
   
    word meaning God abides given as the name to the Algoma community by a Presbyterian preacher
   Preacher
   Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
   
    named Savage.

Henry Schoolcraft

Henry Schoolcraft

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish...

's original text, (see below in references) supports the idea that he invented this word:

In the term Gitchegomee, the name for Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

, we have a specimen of their mode of making compounds. Gitche signifies something great, or possessing the property of positive magnitude. Gomee is itself a compound phrase, denoting, when so conjoined, a large body of water. It is the objective member of their term for the sea; but is governed by its antecedent, and may be used in describing other and minor, even the most minute liquid bodies, as we hear it, in the compound term mushkuagomee, i.e. strong drink. Under the government of the term gitchee, it appears to express simply the sense of great water, but conveys the idea, to the Indian

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 mind, of sea-water. I have cast about, to find a sonorous form of elision, in which it may come into popular use, but find nothing more eligible than I-go-mee, or Igoma. A more practical word, in the shape of a new compound, may be made in Algoma, a term in which the first syllable of the generic name of this tribe of the Algonquin

Algonquian peoples

The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...

 stock, harmonizes very well with the Indian idea of goma (sea), giving us, Sea of the Algonquin

Algonquian peoples

The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...

s. The term may be objected to, as the result of a grammatical abbreviation, but if not adopted practically, it may do as a poetical synonym for this great lake. Such is, at least, the result of a full discussion of these names, with the very best speakers of the language.

Variations

The word Algona is frequently seen, substituting an n for an m. Various sources cite this as a corruption of Henry Schoolcraft

Henry Schoolcraft

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish...

's original word Algoma. Alcona itself is a placename used in the United States and Canada.

External links

• Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years With the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers: With Brief Notices of Passing Events, Facts, and Opinions, A.D. 1812 to A.D. 1842 by Henry Schoolcraft
• A History of the Place Names of the North Western Line
• Wisconsin History: Origin of the Algoma Placename
• Algoma, WI Chamber of Commerce: History of Algoma
• Female Native American Names
• Town of Algoma, Mississippi: Source of "God Abides" definition