"Saone" [Mar 1956]

[Clive Bloomfield]

Hello folks, For what it is worth, in an article entitled: "An  
Investigation of the early bands of the Saone group of Teton Sioux",  
written by "HARRY ANDERSON, St. Albans, N.Y. (Communicated by John C.  
Ewers)",  in the JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Vol.  
46, No. 3, [pp.87-94], dated March 1956, he had the following to say,  
inter alia, on this topic, which may be of interest to people here :  
"The term Saone was used extensively on the Upper Missouri during the  
period 1800-1850, when referring to the five tribes of northern  
Tetons, the Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, Two Kettles, Hunkpapas, and  
Blackfeet Sioux." (p.87)......."The origin and meaning of the name  
Saone is not definitely known, for during the 1880's when the  
missionaries were making their inquiries concerning the Teton bands,  
the name had then gone out of common usage, and little reliable  
information could be obtained from the Sioux regarding its meaning.  
The first known use of the name was by Truteau, who recorded in his  
journal that a Sioux band called "Chahony" was expected to arrive at  
the Arrikara village late in the summer of 1795 for the purpose of  
trade. The best study to date on Saone origins, based upon the  
available sources, can be found in Hyde's history of the Oglalas.  
[HYDE, George E., "Red Cloud's Folk": 12-13. Norman, Okla., 1937.] It  
is his conclusion that the name was given originally to the northern  
Teton group by the southern Tetons, the Oglalas and Brules, and IN  
SOME MANNER REFERRED "SHOOTING IN THE TREES", OR LIVING AND HUNTING  
IN WOODED AREAS." (p. 
87.)                                                                   [ 
See also 1) the : "History of the expedition under the command of  
Lewis & Clark", edited by Elliott Coues, 1: 101. NY, 1893.;  2):   
"Journal of Jean Baptiste Truteau among the Arikara Indians in 1795",  
South Dakota hist. Coll. 7:  
473.]                                                                    
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                            Further,  
in "SIOUX UNTIL 1850" by Raymond J. DeMallie, in Vol.13, Part 2 of 2,  
"Plains", of the Smithsonian Inst.'s "Handbook of North American  
Indians" ( Gen.ed. William C. Sturtevant) (2001), writes thus ( on p.  
757) : "SAONE  The Saone, the fourth major Teton tribe in the early  
nineteenth century, by the mid nineteenth century had broken up into  
four separate tribes - Sans Arcs, Two Kettles, Blackfeet, and  
Hunkpapa. Two other groups that were probably Saone but were no  
longer recognized in the twentieth century were the His Bad heart and  
Wanonwaktenihan. The Minneconjou were also sometimes treated as a  
Saone band.[refs.] The name Saone was undoubtedly a self designation,  
BUT THE PRECISE FORM OF THE WORD AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE ARE NO LONGER  
KNOWN. Nicollet [ref.] translated the name as 'whitish people, whose  
robes are always well whitened with white earth', comprised of sa  
[saN] 'whitish' and a putative verb stem 'oni' 'to rub', but that  
etymology is not satisfactory. S.R. Riggs [ref.] wrote that the nane  
was Sanoni-wicasa (that is saN?oni wichasha 'Sanoni man' ) and was a  
nickname that the Brule and Oglala formerly applied to the Sans Arcs,  
Minneconjou, and Hunkpapa. His spelling, however does not accord well  
with other contemporary and previous renditions."      Question : I  
wonder whether the etymology of the name of the "SaN ona" [saN ?ona]  
band of the Lower Yanktonai, as mentioned by J.O. Dorsey in 1897  
(quoted in my prev. post), regarding which he there says, curiously,  
that a HUNKPAPA informant told him meant "little [-na] whitish [saN-]  
shooter [-?o-]" , or someone who shot at something white (albino  
buffalo?) and thereby incurred exile,  might have been in any way  
connected with "Saone"?  Regards, Clive Bloomfield.