Editing Elkhart, Indiana (section)

===Name===

The name Elkhart is a deliberate misspelling or corruption 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}} The Kaskaskia are not associated with the area in any historical records, however, having been pushed further south and west by the wars of the 17th century.

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=2010-12-16 | access-date=2023-05-02}}</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.<ref name="EarlyYears"/>{{sfn|McCafferty|2008|p=14}}