hoppas / hoppus

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004, Alan Hartley wrote:
> I'm probably headed in the wrong direction asking this of the Siouan
> list, but does anyone have any idea about the etymology of hoppas/hoppus
> or know of any examples of its use? It refers to some sort of backpack,
> usually mentioned in Indian or frontier contexts, from late 18c on,
> mostly in the NE U.S.

In that shape it might be Winnebago, because of the ho- initial and lack
of a final vowel.  Ho- is the Winnebago version of *o- 'in, into', which
is a common enough initial morpheme of words for containers.  I don't
recognize the word off hand, but will look further.