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What Does "Sequiota" Actually Mean?

  • Writer: Brandon Broughton
    Brandon Broughton
  • 10 hours ago
  • 8 min read

Visitors to Springfield, Missouri's Sequiota Park are greeted by a sign that begins:


Se-qui-o-ta means "many springs."


The central feature of the park is a large cave and spring. The spring begins 500 feet back in the limestone hillside.


Prior to 1830, Native American tribes including Osage, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Cherokee used the area.


A sign at the entrance of Sequiota Park on an overcast winter day. Geese are visible grazing in the background. The sign reads "Sequiota Park. Se-qui-o-ta means 'many springs'. The central feature of the park is a large cave and spring. The spring begins 500 feet back in the limestone hillside. Prior to 1830, Native American tribes including Osage, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Cherokee used the area. From 1840 to 1920 there were several private owners. From 1920 to 1959 it was a state park and fish hatchery. In 1959 it became a part of the Springfield Park System.
A sign at Sequiota Park detailing the traditional etymology of "Sequiota" and the history of the park. Photograph by Brandon Broughton, 2026.

While the sign doesn't explicitly make the claim, the belief that "Sequiota" was the Indigenous name for that cave and the surrounding landscape is common among locals. Isn't there something poetic about it—the idea that people have been referring to the Springfield area as "the place with the springs" in one way or another since before recorded history?


But reality is rarely so gratifying. There are no plausible matches for the word "Sequiota" in readily available language resources for any of the Indigenous languages whose speakers were historically present in southwest Missouri. The words for "many" and "spring" in these languages also do not resemble any part of "Sequiota." However, it should be noted that many Indigenous languages are endangered due to centuries of cultural erasure. Despite revitalization efforts, many language resources are incomplete, and some terms may be forever lost.


Maybe, then, "Sequiota" was an uncommon Indigenous term that didn't survive anywhere else but in the name of this specific place. For that to have been the case, we'd expect to see "Sequiota" early in Greene County's historical record, allowing it to be remembered even after the Indigenous peoples of the area were displaced. The problem is that we don't see it there—not in the oldest Springfield newspapers, nor in the earliest Greene County histories.


An advertisement from the June 10, 1914 issue of the Springfield Missouri Republican. It reads: "For Your Picnic. Come to Sequiota Park, formerly Fisher's Cave. Good boating, fishing, clean shady grounds, spring water. Arrange by phone 28F31 for auto to call for you. Good rock roads—six miles southeast. H. E. PETERSON.
An advertisement for the newly rebranded Sequiota Park in the June 10, 1914 issue of the Springfield Missouri Republican.

In fact, the earliest known name for the cave, "Fisher's Cave," came about in the late 1800s, according to late local historian Hayward Barnett. The name came from the Fisher family, who owned the cave until 1882. In 1914, the cave and its surroundings were rebranded as "Sequiota Park" by their new owner, Harvey Peterson. In publicity for the park, Peterson claimed that "Sequiota" was an "Indian name" for "Cave of Many Springs." It appears, then, that "Sequiota" is actually the most modern name for park and cave.


So, what's more likely: The Indigenous name for the cave survived in the memory of white settlers—most of whom arrived after the forced removal of local Indigenous peoples and had no knowledge of Indigenous languages—without ever having been recorded in any surviving historical document, only to surface during the rebranding of the cave almost a century later? Or that the word "Sequiota" has an entirely different origin and meaning?


One possibility is that Peterson simply invented the word "Sequiota." According to a 2015 Smithsonian article by geographer Doug Herman, there is a long tradition of white settlers fabricating Native American-sounding placenames. For instance, Henry Schoolcraft, best known locally for his explorations of the Ozarks, invented pseudo-Indigenous placenames for counties in Michigan. Additionally, the cave was rebranded during a time when, according to Herman, "the growing summer camp industry was adopting Indian names." Perhaps Peterson spun up the word "Sequiota" to capitalize on this naming trend.


A great blue heron stands in the pond at Sequiota Park. A duck swims in the background. The trees are bare and the sky is overcast.
A great blue heron wades in the pond at Sequiota Park. Since the 19th century, Sequiota Cave and its surroundings have been appreciated for their natural beauty. Photograph by Brandon Broughton, 2026.

There's just one complication. Apparently, Peterson didn't name the park at all. In a 1984 article on the history of Sequiota Park for Springfield! Magazine, Hayward Barnett attributes the park's name to Peterson's mother-in-law, Mary Perry, based on information from Peterson's daughter, Olivia Jordan. Mary Perry had reportedly seen the name "in one of the northern states." Unfortunately, a Google search for places named "Sequiota" in the northern United States turns up nothing—nary a town, a county, or a historical site. We'll have to dig a bit deeper.


We can narrow our search area with a bit of genealogical research. Mary Perry was born in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin in 1860. By 1870, her family had relocated to southern Wisconsin, where she remained until her late teens. Her spouse, Edward Perry, grew up in the same area, and both of Mary's parents remained there for most of their lives. From these facts, we can reasonably assume that whatever word Mary Perry saw in the "northern states" that became "Sequiota" is likely to be found in or around southern Wisconsin.


Just over Wisconsin's southern border lies Antioch, Illinois, and running through Antioch is Sequoit Creek. The north bank of Sequoit Creek was the site of the first house in the town of Antioch, so the term "Sequoit" holds historical significance to locals. In fact, "the Sequoit" was the mascot for Antioch Community High School until 2024, leading some to believe that Sequoit was the name of an Indigenous people. In reality, "Sequoit" is likely a corruption of "Sauquoit," the name of a creek and town in central New York, according to historian and geographer Fred Willman. "Sauquoit" itself comes from "sa-da-quoit," an Oneida word meaning "smooth pebbles in a stream."


The dry bed of Galloway Creek in Sequiota Park. Rocks and boulders of various size are in the creekbed.
The dry bed of Galloway Creek in Sequiota Park. The stones in the creek bed have been smoothed by erosion—a fitting echo of the Oneida word "sa-da-quoit," which may be the linguistic ancestor of "Sequiota." Photograph by Brandon Broughton, 2026.

Where does that leave us? Is Sequiota Park actually named after Sequoit Creek in Antioch, Illinois? Here's what we know: According to Harvey Peterson's daughter (as reported by Hayward Barnett), the name "Sequiota" was provided by Mary Perry, who had seen it in "one of the northern states." Perry grew up in southern Wisconsin. There are no well-documented places named "Sequiota" elsewhere in the United States, but there is a Sequoit Creek in Antioch, Illinois, just over Wisconsin's southern border. Lastly, when Fisher's Cave was renamed Sequiota, over 30 years had passed since Perry had lived in Wisconsin. It's not difficult to imagine her misremembering "Sequoit" as "Sequiota" after so much time.


However, there may have been another place named "Sequiota," or something similar, somewhere up north that has slipped out of the historical record. Mary Perry may have also been more widely traveled than the genealogical records suggest, and we could be missing something by focusing our search on the area of her childhood home.


Additionally, we don't know how Perry would have encountered the word "Sequoit." Antioch was never a large town, so Sequoit Creek was probably not widely known during Perry's childhood. Furthermore, while Antioch is a relatively short distance from Perry's childhood home today, it would have been a long and inconvenient journey in the late 1800s, making it less likely that Perry would have ever seen Sequoit Creek herself.


Finally, there's the issue of pronunciation. Generally speaking, people tend to remember words according to their sound, not their spelling. "Sequoit" is pronounced see-KOYT (with the vowel in "boy"). "Sequiota," pronounced see-kwee-OH-tah, adds two additional syllables. That's some creative misremembering.


Two cave entrances at Sequiota Park. A tall, narrow entrance is at left. A short, wider entrance is at right--this is Sequiota Cave. A spring issues from Sequiota Cave. Signs on the cave indicate that it is closed to the public.
Two cave entrances in Sequiota Park. On the right is Sequiota Cave, which has drawn adventurers since the 19th century. Public access to the cave is currently restricted in order to protect local bat populations from white-nose syndrome. Photograph by Brandon Broughton, 2026.

So, what does "Sequiota" actually mean, and where does it come from? It probably does not translate to "many springs" or "the cave of many springs" as Harvey Peterson claimed. Nor does the word "Sequiota" appear to have any historical connection to the cave and park in southeast Springfield prior to 1914.


If Peterson's daughter is correct in attributing the name to Mary Perry, then we're left with the limited record of Perry's life to try to find an answer. This brings us to Sequoit Creek, a source that is both geographically and historically plausible and close enough in appearance and spelling to "Sequiota" to make it, in my opinion, a reasonable candidate for the word's origin. Therefore, the historical lineage of the word may be:


sa-da-quoit

Oneida: “smooth pebbles in a stream”

↓

Sauquoit 

English: The name of a creek in central New York

↓

Sequoit

English: The name of a creek in northern Illinois

↓

Sequiota

English: The name of a cave and park in Springfield, Missouri


We may never know the meaning and origin of "Sequiota" with certainty. Such is often the case in the world of local history. It's important to remember, though, that preserving history isn't just about maintaining traditions and stories. Part of the work is rigorously examining conventional wisdom and received narratives, and correcting our understanding when new evidence is found. This is especially important when those narratives involve Indigenous languages and cultures.


The possibility that the word originated in the Oneida language and then traveled across the nation reminds us that words are living things. They migrate, mutate, and are reinterpreted. In that sense, they’re not dissimilar from sa-da-quoit, pebbles in a stream gradually reshaped and displaced by the flow of time. After hundreds of years and as many miles, a trace of the Oneida language may echo in the speech of Springfieldians. There's poetry there, too—even if it's not quite as tidy as "many springs."


A low-angle photograph of the pond at Sequiota Park. Bare trees and a dawn-sky are reflected in shallow water.
Three unidentified individuals are photographed near the entrance of Sequiota Cave (likely referred to as Fisher's Cave at the time), circa 1900. From the Robert Neumann Collection.

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Note

Sequiota Cave is closed to the public to protect bats from white-nose syndrome.


Special Acknowledgement

Special thanks to the staff of Antioch Public Library District for providing the pronunciation of "Sequoit."


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