Matthew Blong with a linguistics degree from Yale University, presented on “River-Names of Native American and European Origins: A Brief Historical Linguistic Overview.”  Matthew explained that river-names can tell us a great deal about the linguistic heritage of the people who named them. Matthew stated “Iowa, Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest have river-names of both Native American as well as European origin.  Most Native American river-names in this region stem from two language families, Siouan, to which the Ho-Chunk language belongs, and Algonquian.