Pawnee

[Alan H. Hartley]

> I should mention an idea suggested to me by Heriberto Dixon, namely that
> Pani, Pawnee, etc., might derive from (Sa)poney.  It would be a case of
> converting the Poney variant of the Saponey ethnonym to apply to all
> enslaved relatively western Indians.  This is interesting, but I don't
> know if the timing and sources support it.  Pani(a) as a component of
> ethnonyms is first attested in French from, I think, Miami-Illinois
> sources (like Padouca?), quite early and already refers to Northern
> Caddoan groups.  The attestations for it as a term in English for 'Indian
> slave' and referring apparently still to Northern Caddoans are somewhat
> later, but still early.

The earliest example I have of PAWNEE (as <Pana>), presumably with
approx. its modern reference, is on Marquette's map of 1673. As he was
among the Illinois on the upper Mississippi, and as the Illinois
ethnonym <pana> is cited in Gravier's ms. dict. of c1700, Illinois does
seem the most likely immediate etymon for the Fr. name. The Illinois
name could still, of course, have come from Siouan.

My earliest example of the 'slave' use is (in translation) from 1709, in
J. C. HAMILTON The Panis: an hist. Outline of Canadian Indian Slavery in
the eighteenth Century [reprint of Proc. Canad. Inst., n.s. I. pt. 1,
no. 1 (1897)] 25 "Jacques Raudot, Ninth Intendant, issued an ordinance
at Quebec on April 13th, 1709.."We..order that all the panis and negroes
who have been bought, and who shall be purchased hereafter, shall belong
in full proprietorship to those who have purchased them as their
slaves." "

And later 1764 in J. C. HAMILTON The Panis: an hist. Outline of Canadian
Indian Slavery in the eighteenth Century [reprint of Proc. Canad. Inst.,
n.s. I. pt. 1, no. 1 (1897)] 23 [quoting E. O'Callaghan ed. Documents
Relating to the colonial Hist. New York VII. 650] "any English who may
be prisoners or deserters, any negroes, panis, or other slaves amongst
the Hurons, who are British property, shall be delivered up within one
month to the commandment of the Detroit."

In 1767: J. CARVER Journals (1976) 138 "about the head of the Missouri
are many Indian bands called in general Pawnees or Pawnanes signifying
slaves. War parties from the Naudowessie bring from hence abundance of
slaves" (John Koontz pointed out to me that Carver's second form is the
Dakotan version, the only example I have in English.)

And note G. LEMOINE Dict. français-algonquin (1911) 244
"Esclave...apanini, pani (de race américaine)" (maybe a borrowing from
Fr.?)

It seems likely that the 'slave' use arose shortly after the first
arrivals in Lower Canada of Pawnee captives.

As for SAPONY: the first examples I've got are from an Eng. doc. of
1672, as <Sapiny> and <Sapeny> which imply (to me) stress on the first
syllable, and thus a small likelihood that the name would have been
borrowed without that syll. Mooney (in Hdbk. Amer. Indians) lists 22
forms in his synonymy, only one of which (but still one!), from 1789
occurs (as <Paanese>) without the sa-. And SAPONI doesn't seem
geographically a very likely etymon for PAWNEE, either, especially given
that the 'slave' use occurs so early in Canad. Fr.

Alan