Meaning of Siouan word "Shke-ma."

[Tom Leonard]

I used this same song as a reference for the previously posted song. The
Ponca elders I spoke to were, again, insistent that the name was MaN'chu
nitta, or Bear Ears. But, this again goes to some of the problems in
translating songs that I mentioned earlier.

MaN'chu nitta might have been a Sioux captive, but that possibility needs
more research (you could try looking in early census rolls or ethnographic
field notes).

I think it is also important to point out that the referenced transcript has
little in the way of linguistic analysis. That was probably way beyond its
intent. It was essentially an attempt at a phonetic transcript put together,
post-facto (without corroboration by the performers) by non-Indians as an
aide in learning Ponca songs (not language). The transcript, depending upon
what version you have, tried to approximate Fletcher & LaFlesche's
orthography, but presents a few problems. Accordingly, you end up with
problems like "s^ke'ma" vs. "s^ki'ma" or "the,  i  shay  tho" vs.
"egi's^e"(you said) or "es^e' " (you [all] said).

As the emphasis was on music (not linguistics), and the recipients of the
recording didn't speak Ponca, you also end up getting abbreviated or very
generalized explanations (not literal word-by-word translations) by the
performers. Again, words that are sung are very different than when spoken.

I think what you have here is:

ha ni'kka bthe (ta ni'ke) egi's^e - Chief (commander) / you will be / you
said

ha ni'kka - an old form for chief, actually implying "a commander" (see
LaFlesche's Osage dictionary for an example) - derived from ni'kkagahi
('chief')

bthe (hta ni'ke) rendered as: btha (it's "btha" on the recording, not
"bthe")
(hta ni'kke implying 2nd person future)

egi's^e - you said