Editing Elkhart County, Indiana (section)

===Name===
The name Elkhart is a euphemization of "Elks-heart", which refers to the now extinct [[Eastern elk]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Native American Place-Names of Indiana|author-first=Michael|author-last=McCafferty|year=2008|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252032684|pages=14–15}}</ref> The name has been attached to the [[Elkhart River]] and surrounding area since at least 1749, when it was recorded in French as {{lang|fr|Coeur de cerf}} ("elk's heart") as the name of a [[Miami people|Miami]] village there.{{sfn|McCafferty|2008|p=14}} The place name in [[Miami-Illinois language|Miami-Illinois]] is {{lang|mia|mihšiiwiateehi}} ("elk's heart"). Later in the 18th century the area was inhabited by the [[Potawatomi people|Potawatomi]]; in the [[Potawatomi language]], the place is likewise known as {{lang|pot|mzewəodeʔig}}, "at the elk heart".{{sfn|McCafferty|2008|pp=14, 188 n.63}} The name may reflect a prehistoric association of the Elkhart area with the [[Kaskaskia people]], whom the Miami called "elk hearts".{{sfn|McCafferty|2008|p=14}}

Other explanations have been suggested. According to an account by two Miami leaders ([[Jean Baptiste Richardville]] and [[Le Gris|Le Gros]]) recorded in 1824, the name arose from two women fighting over an elk's heart that had been hung up to dry.<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://aacimotaatiiyankwi.org/2010/12/16/walking-myaamionki/ | title = Peempaliyankwi Myaamionki – Walking Myaamionki | author-first = George | author-last = Ironstrack | date=December 16, 2010 | access-date=May 2, 2023}}</ref> Alternatively, some historians including [[Jacob Piatt Dunn]] have associated the name with the shape of an island in the Elkhart River that is stated to resemble an elk's heart.{{sfn|McCafferty|2008|p=14}} This theory has been carried on the city's website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elkhartindiana.org/egov/docs/1167354162275.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120801033844/http://www.elkhartindiana.org/egov/docs/1167354162275.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 1, 2012|title=City of Elkhart: Origins of Elkhart}}</ref>

A popular but non-historical account claims that the county was named after a [[Shawnee]] Indian chief named "Elkhart", who was ostensibly a cousin of the famous [[Tecumseh|Chief Tecumseh]], and father of "princess Mishawaka" (for whom, according to the story, neighboring [[Mishawaka, Indiana|Mishawaka]] is named).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stjoco.org/history/costly_victory.htm|title=St. Joseph County MI - County History: Costly Victory|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626055302/http://www.stjoco.org/history/costly_victory.htm|archive-date=June 26, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richarddeantaylor.com/htm/elkhart.htm|title=History of Elkhart|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906143518/http://www.richarddeantaylor.com/htm/elkhart.htm|archive-date=September 6, 2008}}</ref> This story originated in ''Legends of Michigan and the Old North West'', an 1875 collection of historical fiction by Michigan politician [[Flavius J. Littlejohn]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Michigan Legends: Folktales and Lore from the Great Lakes State | author-first = Sheryl | author-last = James | publisher = University of Michigan Press | year= 2013 | isbn = 9780472051748 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IQWgMA_lD-wC&pg=PA119 | page = 119}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | title = Legends of Michigan and the Old North West; Or, a Cluster of Unpublished Waifs, Gleaned Along the Uncertain, Misty Line, Dividing Traditional from Historic Times. | year = 1875 | location = Allegan, Michigan | publisher = Northwestern Bible and Publishing Company | url = https://archive.org/details/legendsmichigan00littgoog/page/n8/mode/2up }}</ref>