Michigamea is not Dhegiha (Re: Quappa)

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 mmccaffe at indiana.edu wrote:
> > Quoting Koontz John E <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>:
> > > In 1673, below the Ohio on the Mississippi the the Jolliet & Marquette
> > > Expedition encountered a village of gun armed people whom they are later
> > > informed are enemies of the Akamsea - perhaps Chickasaw, or at least
> > > particpating in the later Chickasaw trade with the English.
>
> Marquette does not name these people in his narration of the voyage but
> does appear to name them on his map: Mosopelea.
>
> Mosopelea is the textbook spelling for this ethnonym. In truth, Marquette's
> map reads <MONS8PELEA>. Sorry for the confusion.

These are the folks that Swanton suggested might be the historical Ofo,
partly on the grounds that *moso would become ofo in the course of regular
Ofo sound shifts.  This has been debated considerably.  I think Bob Rankin
and Ives Goddard are currently inclined to believe the association.

Maybe there's something in the Moneton > Michigamea hypothesis after all,
though my main reason for mentioning the Moneton was to exhibit another
group with a similar name and thus to show that "big water" might occur
several times independently.  (So it would be especially awkward if the
name *wasn't* independent.)

Incidentally, although the Mo(n)so(u)pelea and Moneton are both reported
as residents of the Ohio Valley, I think they are initially reported in
rather different places.