Michigamea is not Dhegiha (Re: Quappa)

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 mmccaffe at indiana.edu wrote:
> Marquette names 8 or 9 nations or villages up the Arkansas, but I'm
> confident he named no Miami-Illinois-speaking village. I don't happen to
> be carrying a copy of the map with me at the moment. :) But I'll look
> and get back to you.

I'm not sure the Akansea village south of the Michigamea is on the
Arkansas.  It is probably the Cappa [Okaxpa or Ogaxpa] village mentioned
by the La Salle Expedition as being on the Mississippi north of the
Arkansas ten years later in the 1680s.  At that time it was the last
village of the Akansea before the Michigamea, going north along the
Mississippi.  I think this village is called Akansea by Marquette because
it is the first and only village of the Akansea people he encountered,
proceding south from the Michigamea.

The La Salle Expedition survivor account refers to two Akansea villages on
the Arkansas and two more on the Mississippi itself, with Cappa being the
northernmost of the latter.  Dorsey later assembled more than four Quapaw
or Arkansas village names - five?  seven?  I forget - of which my favorite
has always been ImahaN 'Upstream', both because it provides a local foil
for Okaxpa 'Downstream' and because the ImahaN later merged with the
Caddo, which explains why they tend to get lost in Siouan historiography.

Since Okaxpa 'Downstream' (= "Quapaw" < "Cappa, Quappa") is actually
upstream on the Mississippi, relative to the rest of the villages, my
suspicion is that it must have been named while located at the mouth of
the Arkansas (or maybe even south of the Arkansas), while ImahaN was
probably "up" along the course of the Arkansas.

Of course, Okaxpa 'Downstream' tends to be interpreted in terms of
position relative to the rest of the Dhegiha languages, especially the
UmaNhaN or "Omaha" ['Upstream'] people, but, by the time that
interpretation appears, all of the Quapaw villages but ImahaN had merged
with Okaxpa, and the ImahaN had more or less disappeared into the Caddo.

Since the only mentions of ImahaN are later, it's not clear that it
existed yet in the late 1600s, or, if it did, it may have been overlooked,
perhaps because it was merged temporarily with another village.

As far as Marquette calling a particular Quapaw or Arkansas village
Akansea, he earlier refers to the Peoria village mostly as the Illinois
village.  I was getting ready to give up on identifying it when he finally
mentioned that it was specifically the village of the Peoria people.  I
believe that Marquette visited a number of Illinois villages, even without
counting the Michigamea as Illinois, so maybe his calling Cappa "Akansea"
has nothing to do with it being the first or only Akansea village he
encountered.

I thought it was interesting that the Marquette & Jolliet and La Salle
Expeditions both seemed to distinguish the Michigamea from the Illinois.
The La Salle Expedition survivors seem to have used Quapaw guides to get
past the Michigamea without visiting them at all.  The Quapaw were
evidently on good terms with the Illinois, but not the Michigamea.  This
echoes the claim of Marquette that the Akansea were trading with an
Illinois village to their west.  The Mons8pelea aren't mentioned in the La
Salle Expedition account, at least not in connection with going from Cappa
to the Illinois.