IATAN/ IOTAN

[ROOD DAVID S]

Jimm,
	I sent this query to the person I know who knows Comanche the best
(Jean Charney) and got this response:

	That word does not sound Comanche to me. They don't do initial
voiced stops, for one thing. My Comanche is totally rusty; I suggest that
you contact Tom Kavanaugh, who has an unparalleled knowledge of Comanche
history. He's still at Indiana, as far as I know. His Comanche Political
History has a list of ethnonyms from the 1700s & 1800s, and a quick scan
of those didn't yield any likely candidates.

	I will leave it up to you to keep up the hunt.


	David


David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005, Jimm GoodTracks wrote:

> >From 1825-1840, there was an Otoe leader named Shun'mañikathi (Prairie
> Wolf), which appears in documents as "Chon-Moni-Case", "Shau-mone-kusse",
> etc.
> However, his actual name was overshawdowed by the name above "IATAN/ IOTAN".
> This was the name given him by the fur traders, it is said, after his
> successful encounter with the Comanche.  This name -- Iatan/ Iotan-- from
> which towns have named "to honor the chief", is said to mean "Comanchi".
> The usual name in IOM for Comanche is "Paduka" or even "Padoke" ("Wet Head"
> if in reference to a human being OR "Wet Nose" if reference is to an
> animal).  There was earlier dialog about this latter term as it appears in
> Omaha-Ponca.
>
> My question is the source of the "Iatan/ Iotan"  term.  I can not make any
> sence of it in IOM, and have concluded that is it from the Comanche
> language? a French term? or what?
> Has anyone come across this term for other tribal communities or have
> information of the term origin.
> Jimm
>
>