Siouan place name

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004, "Alfred W. Tüting" wrote:
> tahezata [txa'-he-z^ata]
>
> a two-year old deer, i.e one with two prongs, one fork on either horn.
> Also perhaps, the male elk or deer (B)

I think that OP ttahe'z^aNkka might well be an equivalent of this
specialized Dakotan term.

> In Lakota, the idea of 'fork/forked' seems to be given by _z^a'ta_ in
> many compounds. How's that in O-P?

In OP it's z^a'tta, from *z^at + ka.  Z^aNkka is a different verb, albeit
with a related meaning.

> Can it be that the he' -> ha shift in spelling is due to
> English/American pronunciation?

Well, though spelling tta as ta and he as ha is inconsistent, I am
confident that this is the outcome of trying to spell Omaha forms in
English.  That is, the a in the first syllable is spelled "a," and the e
in the second is also spelled "a"!