Autonym of Mosopeleas-Ouesperies-Ofos

[Rory M Larson]

> only "Ofo," of course, is actually attested in Ofo mouths, I think?

That seems to be the case, involving perhaps only one Ofo mouth.  The last
paragraph in Swanton's historical introduction is worth quoting:

"After 1784 no mention of this tribe appears in histories or books of
travel, and it was naturally supposed that it had long been extinct, when
in November, 1908, the writer had the good fortune to find an Indian woman
belonging to this tribe, of which she is the last representative, who
remembered a surprising number of words of her language, when it is
considered that the rest of her people had died when she was a girl.  She
appears to have learned most of these from her old grandmother, who was
also responsible for the positive statement that the name of their tribe
was Ofo.  This woman, Rosa Pierrette, is living with the Tunica remnant
near Marksville, La., and her husband belongs to the Tunica tribe.  Already
in May, 1907, the writer had heard from the Tunica chief of the
comparatively late existence of representatives of the Ofo, but from the
fact that the one word this man could remember contained an initial f, it
was assumed that it belonged to the Muskhogean linguistic family.  It was
therefore a surprising and most interesting discovery that the Ofogoula of
French writers must be added to the Biloxi as a second representative of
the Siouan family in the region of the lower Mississippi.  In the use of an
f it is peculiar, but its affinities appear to be first with the Biloxi and
the eastern Siouan tribes rather than with the nearer Quapaw and the other
Siouan dialects of the West."

The preceding history Swanton gives suggests that we are dealing with two
separate names for what are presumably Ofos.  The earliest mention of them
is supposed to be from 1699 and 1700, when French explorers became aware of
a complex of about six or seven villages speaking at least three different
languages about four leagues up the Yazoo River in northeastern
Mississippi.  One village was the Tunica (Tonica/Toumika), another the
Ofo-gula (Opocoula/Offogoula, with -gula being the Mobilian ending for
"people"), and another the Uspi (Ouispe/Oussipe/Ounspik).  Other names
given included Taposa, Chaquesauma, Outapa/Ouitoupa, Thysia, Yasoux and
Coroa.  The languages included Jakou (Yazoo), Ounspik (Ofo ?), and Toumika
(Tunica).

During the 18th century, these people seem to have declined and
consolidated.  In 1721, a village of "Yasous mixed with Curoas and
Ofogoulas" is mentioned.  In 1722, four groups are listed as having
settlements on the Yazoo River: the Yasons, Courois, Offogoula, and Onspee
nations, with a total population of only about 250 persons.  This is the
last record of the Uspi that Swanton mentions.  In 1727, there are supposed
to be three villages on the lower Yazoo, in which three different languages
are spoken.  These seem to be the Yazoo, the Koroa, and the Ofo-gula.
Presumably the Uspi joined with the Ofo-gula in the mid 1720s.

In 1729, the Yazoo and Koroa joined the Natchez uprising against the
French, and pressured the Ofo-gula to join them.  The latter resisted, and
withdrew to join the Tunica, who were staunchly pro-French.  By 1739, they
were a small tribe of fourteen or fifteen warriors who had recently settled
next to Fort Rosalie, under frequent assault by the Chickasaw, whose
persecution of them continued at least until 1758.

In 1739 and 1764, they are named as Ossogoulas.  Apparently whatever they
were using for that [s/f] phoneme, it either varied by speaker or was
something that could be understood either way by the French.

The connection of the Uspi with the Ofo is that the Tunica name for the Ofo
was Us^pi.  But this seems to have been the name of a separate group that
was absorbed into the Ofo, probably speaking a closely related language.
If I'm understanding this right, the Uspi name is probably not derived from
moso-/ofo.

(This is a reanalysis based entirely on Swanton's brief historical
discussion of the Ofo.  There may be other facts I don't yet know about
that may modify that story!)

Rory
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