"Wabbish country"?

[asterroc]

I've been reading the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, and he keeps referring to a region of the US as "Wabbish country". Any clue where he means? I mean, New England's a real place in our reality, and it's not too hard to figure out where he means by "Appalacia", but "Wabbish"? I'm guessing the upper-Midwest, but if anyone knows better, let me know.

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Hm, that *is* consistent with my hypothesis above, that it's the upper midwest, west of the Appalachians.

*hunts a bit on Wikipedia*

Ah-hah! You're right! Wabash city/county are named after the Wabash river, which is fed by rivers and streams throughout Indiana. The name for that river comes from the Miami Indian name for it, which tribe Card refers to. And moreover one of the feeder rivers, the Tippecanoe in northern Indiana, is the site of a key battle in one of the books.

Thanks for the sleuthing!

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

No problem. I didn't know much about the Wabash Valley, but it seemed like a reasonable guess, given your mention of "Appalachie".

Of course, the Tippecanoe River was the site of a key battle in real history, too. General William Henry Harrison won such glory there that he translated the battle's legacy into his abbreviated Presidency- his ticket was gleefully referred to as "Tippecanoe, and Tyler Too".

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

My goodness, the things I didn't know... I wonder, if I weren't reading this as an audiobook, I might've had the spelling of some of these names and places and made the connections and Google searches sooner.

In Card's version of America, Tenskwatawa was a pacifist recommending Indian withdrawal of all Indians to the western banks of the Missippi, ceding the eastern part of America to the Whites. Tippecanoe was a massacre by whites of the Indians, at the urging of provincial mayor Harrison. The massacre only ended when the whites finally realized that the Indians were putting up no resistance. Tenskwatawa cursed all the whites at the battle to have blood drip from their hands unless they told everyone new they met the story, and "White Murderer Harrison" therefore was forced to retreat into hermitage.

The subsequent battle of Detroit (part of the 1812 War) was won by the Americans only when the French general Napoleon was imprisoned as a traitor to France and sent back to the motherland in chains, leaving only inept officers in his place. It's a very amusing place, Card's alternate history, and I'm intrigued that it's revealing more about true history to me. :)

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

If you liked this, you might enjoy Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. They're a set of novels set in early 19th Century alt-Europe, where the presence of dragons alters the shape of the Napoleonic Wars. Sort of Horatio Hornblower meets Pern.

[soapfaerie.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest Wabash, because i remember singing the song "Wabash Cannonball" as a kid.. :)