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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A nice person just mentioned that, in my last
post, I did not include any alternative translations that may
have been offered by the Ponca individuals that said "MaH'chu shki'ma" wasn't
correct. Sorry about that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When I did inquire about the song and word in
question, I had one elder say the word should be "MaH'chu hi'ma" (Bear Teeth)
and another tell me the word was "Ma'chu ni'ta" (Bear Ear). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've never found a reference to "MaH'chu hi'ma"
(Bear Teeth) as a Ponca name. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>However, "MaH'chu ni'ta" (Bear Ear) was the name of
a Ponca man born in 1808; he is listed on the 1861 and 1890 Ponca census
rolls. That would place this individual in a time when
fighting between the Sioux and Ponca was heating up and during the time
when many of the songs on the Stewart tape were composed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is all anecdotal at best. We don't know if the
individual singers on the Stewart recording learned the song "incorrectly", or
learned it from someone that "didn't have it quite right", or the meaning of
their rendering was "correct" with a translation lost in
antiquity.</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></DIV>
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