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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think I've read this somewhere before,
perhaps in Dr. Howard's (OSU) "The Ponca Tribe" (not sure). If it's origin is
Howard, it wouldn't surprise me. A fair amount of the cultural information
he published in "The Ponca Tribe", in my experience, met with "I never said
that" or "where'd he get THAT?" from some of his very same "informants". The
differences between what was published and what the same informants said less
than ten years later was rather stark. So, I'd advise some caution if this is
the original source. Also, this book has been around for quite some time and
it's not unusual to find some of it's notions being reiterated now as
"primary info".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Culturally "bare legs" doesn't
make very much sense. Linguistically, I can't get there at
all.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Culturally, "xthe xthe shka'de" or "xthe xthe
u'skaN" makes the most sense (to me). However, I think the previous discussions
here have demonstrated these to be linguistic nebulae.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom Leonard</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV>The Ponca Hethuska member said that he was told by fellow society members
that the origin of the term is said to mean "bare legs," and is in reference
to the practice of removing the deerskin leggings by the old-time warriors of
this society, before going into battle.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Any thoughts?</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>