Historical questions

[Rory M Larson]

As I start to write my thesis, beginning with an overview
of Omaha history, a miscellany of questions has been
occurring to me, some relevant and some not.  I thought
I would post some of these to the list, to find out what
is known about them.

1.  The earliest French name for the Missouri River
    is Pekitanoui.  Does anyone know where that comes
    from or what it means?  Is it Algonquian?

2.  The name Missouri itself looks like it _might_
    possibly come from something like MVS
    *mni-s^ot(i)a, if we can preserve the m in *mni
    and shift the sibilants forward a slot, as happens
    in IO.  Is this a likely etymology, or completely
    off the mark?

3.  The element /maha/ shows up in at least three
    different contexts.  We have the Maha as the
    UmaN'haN, or the Omaha tribe, which is said to
    mean 'upstream'.  But we also have the Pani-maha,
    who are usually Loup or Skidi Pawnee, but seems
    sometimes to be used (or confused) for the Omaha
    or Arikara as well.  And between the Kansas and
    Platte rivers, we have a couple of small rivers
    flowing into the Missouri from southeastern
    Nebraska called Nemaha, presumably Ni-maha.
    So are these maha's coming from the Missouria,
    Osage or Kaws, with the meaning of 'upstream'
    on the Missouri?  The Nemaha is the 'river upstream',
    the Pani-maha are the 'upstream Pawnees', and the
    O-maha are the 'ones who dwell in an upstream context'?

4.  At the beginning of the 18th century, the Big Sioux
    River is known to the French as the River of the Mahas,
    apparently because the Omaha-Ponka were dwelling there
    in the late 17th century.  Tabeau, probably writing
    around 1806 if understand correctly, mentions a
    "rivierre des mohens" several times.  The editor says
    this is probably the Des Moines, but the river seems
    always to be mentioned in the context of the Minnesota,
    the James and the Upper Missouri, which suggests the
    Big Sioux.  To Tabeau, the river of the Mahas seems
    appropriately to be Omaha Creek in northeastern
    Nebraska, where the Omaha Big Village is located,
    but this is barely mentioned only in passing.  Could
    mohen simply be an alternate spelling for the old
    (river of the) Maha?  In French, it would be
    pronounced something like /mohaN/, which is at least
    as close to /umaN'haN/ as is /maha/.

5.  How long have the Iowa and Oto been separate tribes?
    As I understand, the two languages are hardly more
    than dialects of each other.  Some Omaha traditions
    seem to hold that they were together with both of
    them, and the Winnebago as well, when they were
    living on the Big Sioux.  When the Omaha moved west
    to the mouth of the White River on the Missouri, the
    Iowa and Oto were still with them, though the
    Winnebago were no longer heard from.  After moving
    back down the Missouri to northeastern Nebraska, the
    Iowa were still near the Omaha, living at Aowa Creek
    while the Omaha were at Bow Creek.  But the Oto were
    already living down by Omaha (city) and the lower
    Platte by 1718 (according to a French map), and joined
    with the Pawnee in the massacre of the Villasur
    expedition in 1720.  The Iowa moved down to join the
    Oto on the other side of the Missouri at Council Bluffs
    sometime prior to 1758, when the French Governor
    Kerlerec described the tribes of the Missouri.  They
    later moved east to the mouth of the Des Moines
    between 1765 and 1768 at the invitation of the traders
    of St. Louis to meet them there.  How does this all
    compare to the Iowa and Oto traditions of their early
    history?  And how about the Winnebago?  Is there any
    reason to believe they were west of the Mississippi
    prior to 1700?

6.  Do we have any language material at all from the
    Missouria?

7.  It looks like we have at least two words for 'horse'
    in MVS.  In the Lower Missouri region, we have /kawa/,
    from Spanish 'caballo', shared by the Osage, Kaw and
    I understand the Pawnee.  From further up, especially
    perhaps the northeastern Nebraska region, we have
    'horse' derived from the 'dog' term, *s^uN'ka.  In
    Omaha, Ponka, Iowa and Oto, the word completely
    shifts.  In OP, a new word, s^iN'nudoN, is coined for
    'dog'.  What do Iowa and Oto have for 'dog'?  In
    Lakhota, the new form for 'horse' is the qualified
    'dog', s^uN'ka-wakhaN'.  Is it the same in all the
    Dakotan languages?  And what is the word for 'horse'
    in Winnebago?

That's enough for tonight.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Rory