Cherokee term for 'china clay'

[Koontz John E]

It appears that there's quite a Web literature on Cherokee unaker clay
amongst collectors and ceramics historians.  While it's possible the word
is of Cherokee origin, I rather wonder if it wasn't something the original
developers of the resource (who used the word in their patent) knew
(however indirectly) from the Chinese literature on the subject.  Of
particular interest is the fact that the final "ke" is "silent" in the
Chinese version.  I think this means that the term is written with three
characters u(k), na and ke, but only the first two are pronounced.  It
would be easy for an 18th Century European working with Chinese technical
materials to conclude that the sequence was pronounced u-na-ker (with
"ker" being a period "r-less dialect" spelling for something we would
probably write "ke"  or "keh" today).

Somehow this reminds me of the Oneota phase in Illinois called "Bold
Counsellor Phase."  The excavator (surname Conrad) apparently named it
after himself, though giving the impression of a Native American source.
Conrad or "Kunrat" - OHG diminutive Kuntz ~ Kuntsch (which is where I come
in) - is 'bold' + 'advice'.  I suspect this standard issue Indo-European
name is supposed to be understood as 'recommending a bold course of
action' and not as 'courageous in counsel' which could easily mean quite
the opposite of 'bold'.  Of course, with any kind of compounding or
incorporation it is often hard to figure out the precise role of the
incorporand. There used to be a small manufacturing plant in Louisville
called "Explosive Fabricators."  Whenever I drove past I used to amuse
myself by trying to parse it.  I think I ultimately came up with four or
five different readings.