FW: Word Inquiry

[Rankin, Robert L]

All,

I have had this inquiry from Arkansas about a possible place or tribal
name MANATAKA.  I don't recognize it.  Do any of you?  Especially the
Algonquianists, given that it occurs in the NE as a placename....

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: aihsc [mailto:aihsc at gonmail.com]

Dear Dr. Rankin,

We are trying to track down the possible origin of a
place name word.  I understand that the bastardization
and changes from original American Indian words often
makes it either difficult or impossible to make
definite connections.

However, this is rather important to us in that it
involves a fraudulent American Indian organization in
Arkansas - the "Manataka American Indian Council".
They are using the word both as part of their name and
the original name of the area where they are located -
Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The current spelling of the word is "Manataka".  Past
spellings might have included "Mahnatakah" and
"Monataukau".

There is a Lake Manataka in Pennsylvania, and there
were was a Manataka chapter of the Improved Order of
Red Men at Hot Springs, Arkansas in the late 1800's
and early 1900's.  We don't know at this time if there
were IORM Manataka chapters in other states, but we
are looking into the possibility.  There was also a
Monatauk tribe in the Long Island area.

The organization in question claims that the word
means "Place of Peace", which we find highly unlikely.
 Tooker's possible meaning of "manatauk", which might
be the origin of our word, is an observation point.
However, we understand that his work is highly suspect
today.

The organization also states that the word had been
"credited to the Kaw in 1789 by the French, but there
is no evidence for this claim".  In addition, I don't
believe that the Kaw ever made it that far south.

Any help or suggestion that you might have in
unraveling the origin and original definition of
"Manataka" would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dave Lowe
American Indian Heritage Support Center
Bentonville, AR