Sarpy

[Koontz John E]

One minor mystery in the Omaha and Ponca texts is that the trader Sarpy is
referred to as Bac^c^i'.  Dorsey says that this is Peter G. Sarpy, and he
seems to have been a trader for whom Joseph La Flesche worked when he was
a young man.  The Sarpy family were prominent traders on the lower
Missouri in the early days.  The Houck and Nasatir collections mention
Bernal (Beral) Sarpy, Bernardo Sarpy (same as last?), De l'Or Sarpy,
Gregoire (Gregorio) Sarpy, Jean Baptiste (Juan Bautista) Sarpy, and Lille
Sarpy.

It has occured to me that Bac^c^i might be a version of Baptiste.  (Which
Dorsey spells Battiste in other French names, e.g., Battiste
Deroin/Dorion.)  Jean Baptiste Sarpy was the older brother of Gregoire
Sarpy, who I suppose might even be Pierre Gregoire Sarpy.

Because Baptiste has an Omaha form Badi'ze (see below), we'd have to
assume that Bac^c^i' has a different history, perhaps involving
Ioway-Otoe, where t regularly becomes c^ before i, though I think the
phonology of Canadian French is such that one needn't appeal to Ioway-Otoe
to have t materialize as c^.

It would have to be assumed that the name Bac^c^i' became fixed to members
of the family Sarpy, and carried across regardless of their actual given
name.

Other French names I have noticed in the Dorsey texts are:

Badi'ze (Battiste)
Budhi't[t]e (glossed Charles Pepin, but maybe Hippolyte?)
Dhawi'ini, Dhawi'na (David)
(Dorsey is also given variously as Da'si [rarely] and Dha'si [commonly])
HaNdhi' (Henry, Henri)
J^o' (Joe, Joseph)
Dhusi' (Lucy, Lucie)
Mis^e'dha (Michel)
Sasu' (Frank, Francis, Francois) (also given as just Frank)
S^ani' (Charlie, Charles)
Zuze'tte (Susette)

This may not be the complete list, because it has been compiled entirely
by chance encounter.  In addition, given the importance of the trading
connection with Omaha and Ponca history and the prominence of metis
families in all lower Missouri Sioan groups, a fairly full colleftion of
French names in Colonial use must have been available and in circulation.

In particular, the town Rosalie is called Dhuza'dhi in Omaha.  In fact, I
was told that Rosalie was an English version of the Omaha name Dhuza'dhi,
which clearly implies that Dhuza'dhi is completely naturalized.  Of
course, the town is named for Rosalie (LaFlesche) Farley, and as her Omaha
name was probably Dhuza'dhi, then Rosalie really is just an English
version of her Omaha name.

I have also personally heard Me'dhi (Mary, Marie) in current use.

The form Sasu' makes you wonder about the origin of the surname Sanssouci,
although I think the latter is usually assumed to be a dit name.

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz