Historical questions

[Rory M Larson]

>> what
>> did the Missouria call themselves?  What did their Siouan
>> neighbors (Osage, Kaw, Quapaw, Oto and Iowa) call them?
>
> "The Missouria name for themselves was Ni-u-t'a-tci [the u and final i
> carry acute accents] (Dorsey 1897:240)" (HNAI 13.461) The synonymy also
> gives Ioway, Omaha-Ponca, Quapaw, Osage and Kansa forms.

Thanks, Alan!  That certainly seems to match the
Omaha term given in Fletcher and La Flesche.
Ni-u'-t?a- almost certainly means 'drowned',
and the (a)tci is probably equivalent to OP athi',
pending John, Bob, or one of the Chiwerenists
shooting me down.

I've just run across a very interesting, if
confusing, discussion of this name by an early
Presbyterian missionary, Rev. Wm. Hamilton, in
Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State
Historical Society, vol. 1 (1885).  The spelling
given varies wildly from one mention to the next,
starting with Ne-yu-ta-ca, and morphing to
Ne-u-tach, then Ne-u-cha-ta, then ne o-cha-tan-ye,
to ne-o-cha-ta.  Explanation 1 says it means they
were camped at the mouth of a stream (which makes
perfect sense if u-tach or whatever means 'mouth
of a river' in Chiwere); explanation 2 given by
Le Fleche [sic] says some men were in a canoe
and were drowned.  This goes along with both
Illinois canoes and Siouan drowning, but it begs
for very interesting story to explain it!

Rory