Water monsters

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 20 Jan 2002, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
> > There is a water monster that shows up in Crow tales.  The term for it
> is buluksa'a. which is not obviously derived from anything else.  Any
> possible cognates?  Randy
>
> Looks like it might possibly be related to the *wakru$ka term (folk taxonomy
> for anything from a small bug to an alligator, including insects, arachnids
> and lizards).  It has reflexes in various Mississippi Valley languages.

Specifically it looks like Dakotan wablus^ka, implying *waprus^ka, albeit
with metathesis of s^k (and s^ > s).  The *wakrus^ka and *waprus^ka
variants don't correspond regularly, but the match looks reasonable.  I
wonder if the Crow form is regularly derived from *waprus^ka?  Could it be
a loan?