(O)maha

[Wallace Chafe]

Interesting that the Seneca name for the Cherokee is oyata'ke:a', which
means 'cave people'. The second half of it looks a little like waarahkia,
but that must be a coincidence. Was there any particular area in which
people lived in caves?
--Wally

> True, but it's also clear that the Marquette generation knew next to
> nothing  about the Michigamea, who, rather than flee to Wisconsin or
> southeast  Missouri, went down the Mississippi, as you know, when the
> Seneca and their  buddies pushed their catastrophe to the west. The
> Illinois-French dictionary  says that the Kaw knew the Michigamea by the
> name <8arakia>, which, as Bob  pointed out a few years ago, is not
> analyzable in Siouan. However, this  spelling is a dead-ringer for Old
> Illinois /waarahkia/ 'cave country person'. I've suggested in a piece of
> writing yet to be published that the term may  apply to the lower Ohio.
>
> Michael