We travel all over the U.S. and we see all these places. And each place has a name. New England. New York. St. Louis. Denver. Longs Peak. Pikes Peak. San Francisco. All these places were “discovered” and named by “explorers” in the last few hundred years.
So we, the people of European descent, “explore” our way across an entire continent, which is already populated. (The pre-“discovery” population of the Americas is estimated to be about 50 million to 100 million.) And when we roll into town and encounter a distinctive place or feature, what do we do? Do we ask the people who have been here for ten thousand years, “Hey, what’s the name of this place?” Not often. We say “Wow, look what we discovered”, and make up a name for it.
Does that make any sense?