"hethu's^ka" revisited

[Tom Leonard]

I think I've read this somewhere before, perhaps in Dr. Howard's (OSU) "The Ponca Tribe" (not sure). If it's origin is Howard, it wouldn't surprise me. A fair amount of the cultural information he published in "The Ponca Tribe", in my experience, met with "I never said that" or "where'd he get THAT?" from some of his very same "informants". The differences between what was published and what the same informants said less than ten years later was rather stark. So, I'd advise some caution if this is the original source. Also, this book has been around for quite some time and it's not unusual to find some of it's notions being reiterated now as "primary info".

Culturally "bare legs" doesn't make very much sense. Linguistically, I can't get there at all.

Culturally, "xthe xthe shka'de" or "xthe xthe u'skaN" makes the most sense (to me). However, I think the previous discussions here have demonstrated these to be linguistic nebulae.

Tom Leonard
  The Ponca Hethuska member said that he was told by fellow society members that the origin of the term is said to mean "bare legs," and is in reference to the practice of removing the deerskin leggings by the old-time warriors of this society, before going into battle.

  Any thoughts?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/siouan/attachments/20060122/d12aa31e/attachment.htm>