Saponi Name Origin and Meaning

Sat Jun 22 07:06:05 UTC 2013

Seponican

Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Volume 6
 By New York State Historical Association
http://books.google.com/books?id=0TmYlrp7AZcC&pg=RA1-PA7&dq=Saponican&hl=en&ei=gx9eTbqrGZTpgAeptKTrDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Saponican&f=false

Saponickan and Sapohanican are the earliest forms of a name which appears later Sappokanican, Sappokanikke, Saponican, Shaw-backanica, Taponkanico, etc. “ A piece of land bounded on the north by the strand road, called Saponickan” (1629); “Tobacco plantation near Sapohanican” (1639); “Plantation situate against the Reed Valley beyond Sappokanican” (1640).  Wouter van Twiller purchased the tract, in 1629, for the use of the Dutch government and established thereon a tobacco plantation, with buildings enclosed in palisade, which subsequently became known as “the little village of Sapokanican--- Sappokanican--- Van der Donck--- and later (1721) as Greenwich Village. It occupied very nearly the site of the present Gansevort market. The “Strand road” is now Greenwich Street. It was primarily, an Indian path along the shore of the river north, with branches to Harlem and other points, the main path continuing the trunk-path through Raritan
 Valley, but locally beginning at the ‘crossing-place’ or as the record reads, “Where the Indians cross [the Hudson] to bring their pelteries.” “South of Van Twiller's plantation was a marsh much affected by wild fowl, and a bright, quick brook, called by the Dutch ‘Bestavar's Kil’, and by the English ‘Manetta Water.’”( Half-Moon Series.) Saponickan was in place here when Van Twiller made his purchase (1629), as the record shows, and was adopted by him as the name of his settlement. To what feature it referred cannot be positively stated, but apparently to the Reed Valley or marsh. It has had several interpretations, but none that are satisfactory. The syllable pon may denote a bulbous root which was found there. (See Passapenoc.) The same name is probably met in Saphorakam, or Saphonakan, given as the name of a tract described as “Marsh and canebrake,” lying near or on the shore of Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn. (See Kanonnewage, in
 connection with Manhattan.)
Also see the following as to the name:
“Four dayes Journey from your forte Southerward is a town called Ononahorne, seated where the river Choanock divideth itself into three branches and falleth into the sea of Rawnocke in thirty five degrees. If you make your principall and choise seate you shall doe most safely and richly because you are in the heart of Lands open to the south and two of the best rivers will supply you, besides you are neare to with Copper mines of Ritane and may passe them by one branch of the river, and by another Peccareca- micke where you shall finde four of the Englishe alsoe, lost by Sir Walter Raweley, which escaped from the slaughter of Powhatan of Roanocke upon the first arivall of our Colony and live under the protection of a wiroano call’d Sepanocan enemy to Powhatan, by whose consent you shall never receive them, one of these were worth much laboar and if you finde them not, yet search into this contrey it is more probable than towardes the North.”  

Scott P. Collins
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--- On Sat, 6/22/13, Scott Collins <saponi360 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

From: Scott Collins <saponi360 at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Saponi Name Origin and Meaning
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2013, 1:44 AM

Any thoughts on this line of reasonings and questions for the Saponi name origins and meanings?

There is also discussion on the Tutelo word sa:p which Oliverio has on pg.271 meaning flat, level or shallow. sa:p oni: flat/shallow/level/ tree. 
It was pionted out to me though it is the wrong word order. Properly put together it would be oni: sa:p for shallow tree. So guess that wasn't it. 
Does Saponi mean "Red Earth People"? Acu:ti = Red
Amą: = Earth
Yesą = People (alternate for people is Relative – Hadaq, Nedewahe.per Meuse pg. 73; hatak = cousin per Oliverio pg. 191) 
Monasukapanough
“But the horses were directed to a ford about a mile higher, called by the Indians Moni-seep, which signifies, in their jargon, shallow-water.”--- William Byrd (1728)
Sa:p = Shallow (Oliverio pg.329)
Mani: = Water
Mani: sa:p (water shallow) {Moni-seep of William Byrd}
If it is the other way round Sa:p mani: then it’s a possible; but I tried that with oni: sa:p (tree shallow) but forgot the order and made it sa:p oni: . Is the answer somewhere among the various spellings of Saponi such as:
Paanese (for Sa-paahese).-Albany treaty (1789) in Hale, N. W. States, 1849, p. 70. Saps.-Lawson (1714), History of Carolina, 1860, p. 89.
Sapan.-Lederer, Discoveries, 1672, map.
Sapon.-Ibid., p. 2.
Saponas.-Lawson, op. cit., p. 83.
Sapones.-Drake, Book of the Indians, 1848, p. xii.
Sapongs.-Batts (1671) in N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., vol, iii, p. 194 (misprint, g for y).
Saponeys.-Johnson (1763), ibid., vol. vii, p. 582.
Saponees.-Knight (1712) in N. C. Records, vol. i, p. 866. 
Saponi.-Byrd (1728), Hint. Dividing Line, vol. i, p. 75. 
Saponie.-Document of 1711 in N. C. Records, vol. i, p. 808.
Saponys.-Document of 1728 in Colonial Virginia State Papers, 1875, vol. i, p. 215. 
Sapoones.-Croghan (1765) in Monthly American Journal of Geology, 1831, p. 271. 
Sapoonies.-Hutchins (1768) in Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1787, p. 169. 
Sappona.-Pollock (1712) in N. C. Records, vol. i, p. 884.
Sapponces:-Albany Conference (1717) in N. Y. Documentary Colonial History, vol. v, p. 490 (misprint, c for e).
Sapponees.-N. C. Council (1727) in N. C. Records, vol. ii, p. 674. 
Sapponeys.-Document of 1709 in Colonial Virginia State Papers, 1875, vol. i, p. 131. 
Sapponie.-N. C. Council (1726) in N. C. Records, vol. ii, p. 643.
Sapponnee.-Albany Conference (1717) in N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., vol. v., p. 490. 
Sappony.-N. C. Council (1727) in N. C. Records, vol. ii, p. 674. 
I've also seen Sapinney. 
Paanese (for Sa-paahese), what would the aahese be? 
Although Swanton states that Paanese is not connected to the word Pawnee, Pani and Panis is a direct corruption of Pawnee as shown in Robert W. Venable’s explanation concerning the Indian slave trade and the accompanying trade jargon. ---“American Indian History: Five Centuries of Conflict and Coexistence”, Vol. I Conquest of a Continent, 1492 – 1783, by Robert W. Venables Pg.206 
"...in which it is stated that the "Paanese" (Sa-poonese)..."---Hale also found in Hall, James (?). Early History of the Northwestern States, p. 70. Buffalo and Auburn, 1849. 
Would that be Sa:p oni:-se? If the word order is wrong is it possible that there is something being missed in certain instances regarding compound nouns that is different under certain situations in Saponi than for other Siouan languages? Or is it more probable that by the time Hale went to record these things that the informants had already taken on Iroquois language rules? I don't know what the language rules are for Iroquois/Cayuga/Seneca. 
Sapan (pronounced [ˈsaːpːʌn]),[13] cornmeal mush, a staple of Lenape cuisine; "sapàn". Lenape Talking Dictionary. Retrieved June 26, 2011 
Interestingly the word in Algonquin for boiled Indian meal is Supawn or Sa-pon and translates into “softened by water”. See, “Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico”, by Frederick Webb Hodge Pg.652. 

Scott P. Collins
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Evil Is An Outer Manifestation Of An Inner Struggle

“Men and women become accomplices to those evils they fail to oppose.”

"The greater the denial the greater the awakening."
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