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Kansas is a Midwestern state[1] in the Central United States (an area often referred to as the "Heartland"). It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, from the French "Cansez", by explorer Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, and after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area.[2] The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind", although this was probably not the term's original meaning.[3][4] Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."