Ponca-Pawnee Name Inquiry

Rory M Larson rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu
Thu Aug 23 13:55:00 UTC 2007


I'm tempted toward Ponca too.  I agree with Justin that "re sha" might
involve dhe'ze, 'tongue'.  But I would guess that "Box ka" would be Wa'x^e
akHa', with the initial w being heard as b, as in the wuhu' vs. bug^u'
alternation.  The final part would probably be another akHa':

  Box ka        re sha  hash ta              ka
  Wa'x^e akHa'  dhe'ze  (i)(a)hasht()(a)     akHa'
  The whiteman  tongue  ('one', 'honest' ?)  the

This would leave us with the -hasht- part still unresolved, and lacking
anything about curly hair.

Justin, what's the word for 'whiteman' in Kaw?

Rory




                                                                           
             "Justin McBride"                                              
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                                       Re: Ponca-Pawnee Name Inquiry       
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Mark,

I can vaguely imagine the "Box ka re sha" part being ppah(i) ska dheze,
'white hair, tongue...,' and can even imagine "hash ta ka" containing the
word ha, 'skin,' possibly in reference to skin color.  I just can't place
the remaining shtege/shteke/xtege/xteke part, and don't see anything like
unto a Kaw word for 'curly.'  But that CteCe bit does look kinda Siouan,
no?

-Justin


----- Original Message -----
 From: Mark J Awakuni-Swetland
 To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
 Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 8:01 AM
 Subject: Ponca-Pawnee Name Inquiry


 Good Morning All,
 I received this inquiry from John Carter at the Nebraska State Historical
 Society. Any speculations on this name?
 Many thanks,
 Uthixide

 Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Ph.D.
 http://omahalanguage.unl.edu

 ----- Forwarded by Mark J Awakuni-Swetland/UNLAS/UNL/UNEBR on 08/23/2007
 07:57 AM -----
                                                                           
 "John Carter" <                                                           
 jcarter at nebraskahistory.org>                                              
                                                                           
                                                                        To 
 08/22/2007 04:16 PM                        "Mark Awakuni-Sweltand"        
                                            <mawakuni-swetland2 at unl.edu>   
                                                                        cc 
                                                                           
                                                                   Subject 
                                            Another question               
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           


 Mark
 I am working on some stuff on Julius Meyer, the German Jew in Omaha who
 claimed to speak six languages and opened the Indian goods store on Farnam
 Street.


 He claimed to have been given and Indian name, which he spelled Box ka re
 sha hash ta ka, which he translated as “Curly haired white man with one
 tongue.”  I have two accounts, one that he got it from the Pawnee and one
 that he got if from the Ponca.  I asked James Riding In if that name made
 sense to him:  he thought it more likely that it was “Curly haired white
 dude who that a buffalo robe was worth a carton of Marlboros.”  It does
 look like one of those Pawnee jawbreakers but I thought I would just shoot
 it across your bow for an opinion.


 Thoughts?


 Thanks, John

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