Lakota Concept of Zero

[Tom Leonard]

>Summing this up with the Miami-Illinois
> information offered by David, and considering the crude feel of the word,
I
> would favor the view that the international heyday of the "box" term was
> early as he suggested, probably prior to 1820, and hence before the Omaha
> treaty payments.  The term must have evolved separately in different
> languages after that.  Thus, the Ponca used it for the treaty payments;
the
> Omaha did not, but kept it as an alternate numeric term along with a much
> more windy native term; and the Iowa-Oto-Missouria transferred it to
> 1000-round Army ammunition boxes, as well as using it as the number 1000.
>

Just for the record, the following are the earliest Treaty dates that I can
find wherein a monetary (currency) settlement is mentioned:

Ponca - Treaty of 1858
Omaha - Treaty of 1854
Osage - Treaty of 1808
Kansa - Treaty of 1825
Quapaw - Treaty of 1824

Chippewa - Treaty of 1819
Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache - Treaty of 1853
Iowa - Treaty of 1824
Miami - Treaty of 1805
Oto & Missouria - Treaty of 1833
Pawnee - Treaty of 1857
Sac & Fox - Treaty of 1824
Sioux - Treaty of 1837
Winnebago - Treaty of 1832

If the origin of "trunk" is prior to 1820, as hypothesized - given the above
dates - I  wonder if in fact there may be some merit in what an elderly
Osage woman told me many years ago....that the word ku'ge for "trunk" was
derived from the Osage verb "k'u" - to give away. "Trunk" for "1000" is
certainly not an isolated case, it seems widespread. But most tribe never
saw trunks of 1000 coins until after 1820, most earlier treaties were for
less than 1000 dollars (or coins).