Siouan place name (Elkhorn)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Louis Garcia wrote:
> In Dakota any fork in an object (in this case River) is called Ojate or
> Fork. Is it possible that the Town of Elkhorne, NE is near a fork, or
> where the Elkhorn River enters the main River. later, Louie

Actually the town in question is called Norfolk, NE, which is pronounced
Norfork, I gather, but this is just English phonology and hasn't anything
to do with forks.  Norfolk's southeast of Wayne, on the upper reaches of
the Elkhorn, which flows into the Platte further south.  Wayne is directly
west of the Omaha Reservation, for those who are interested.

There is an Elkhorn, NE, but it looks like it's on the West Papillon
Creek, not on the Elkhorn River at all, though the town Elkhorn is between
Omaha and where the Elkhorn joins the Platte.

I am realizing that the Elkhorn River and Elkhorn, NE, are named in
English for an historical Omaha figure named Elkhorn or, maybe mnore
accurately, 'Forked Antler'.  The Omaha name of the Elkhorn River seems
not to have anything to do with elks or horns or the historical figure
Elkhorn.  The Omaha river name Watte' looks like wa- plus the word for
'buffalo' (tte'), and is said to have no known meaning other than 'Elkhorn
River' (using the English as a sort of metalanguage for naming rivers).

On the other hand, though the park in Norfolk is named, essentially, after
the adjacent river as it is called in English.  Confusingly, in rendering
it into Omaha, they have elected to use, not the Omaha name of the Elkhorn
River, but the Omaha name for the historical figure Elkhorn.  I assume
that it was known to the authorities consulted that the personage Elkhorn
had the Omaha name Ttahe'z^aNkka and not merely Ttahe', which would be
'elkhorn'.

I hope this is clear.  There are entirely too many things in Nebraska
named for different elkhorns, I'm beginning to feel!