Place names and personal names

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006, Mark J Awakuni-Swetland wrote:
> John, you're a dollar short.

And a day late, as usual!  Thanks for the details!  I seem to recall a
discussion of the general phenomenon somewhere by Powers or maybe Howard?
As far as remembering numbers, I'm infamous for not, so I need all the
help there I can get!

> On the other topic:
> Omaha have quite a few so called "half breed" names for family members who
> may be mixed blood and no clan affiliation/name. Most are Omaha renderings
> of the English name. Grandma Elizabeth Saunsoci Stabler (1905-1985) had no
> clan due to her paternal lineage back to Louis Saunsoci, the french
> trader. Her Indian name was "Thi'sabet". Other names include Julia=>
> Juthi', Jenny=> JEniwiN', Mary=> Mathe', or Methe' (similar to the
> Hawaiian renderings for Mary and Marie).

Wow!  You know a lot of these!  I remember hearing Mary Clay addressed as
Me'dhi (or so I thought it was at the time).  I've assumed that in some of
these cases the original is perhaps French, e.g., Marie.  With many names
it would be hard to tell, e.g., Dhizabet, Medhe ~ Medhi, Dhuzadhi, once it
had been through the wringer of Omaha, since the English forms are derived
from the French, and very similar in detail, but perhaps Judhi' is Julie,
not Julia, and though JeniwiN might have 'woman' appended, I'd guess
Genevieve might be in its pedigree.

> I cannot call to mind male examples but I know I've heard them.

I think the Dorsey texts have HaNdhi, which I assume is Henri, though it
is translated Henry.  Otherwise I've seen (but never heard) Sasu
(?Francois) and Bac^[]i (Abadie) and J^o.

> There were also half-breed names that were descriptive in some fashion
> similar to the clan names.

Haven't heard of any of these, specifically.  Are there any you can
repeat?

> All of these names have never been gathered and analyzed to my
> knowledge. Perhaps an interesting little project for someone, enit?

Yes!

> For a time on the Omaha Reservation at Macy the name "Bedrock" was being
> applied to one of the tribal housing projects...taken from the Flintstones
> genre.
>
> Sunrise Village, the oldest tribal housing venture north of the tribal
> offices is still known by that name.
>
> Omaha Lodges is the housing project due east of Macy.
>
> Oakleaf is the name applied to a housing project between Macy and
> Walthill. I believe the name originates from the early 20th century
> country school and township at that location.
>
> Million dollar hill gets it name from the speculated cost of improving
> that section of highway 75 back in the early 20th century. It is a several
> miles long grade rising from south to north along the east side of Macy.
> Grandpa Charles Stabler (1900-1992) recalled how he worked on the grading
> because he had a team of horses available for the job.

A number of my ancestors supported homesteads along the Sappa Creek (Sapa
Wakpala?) in Kansas grading railroad beds in that area!  They also had
teams available and probably not much else.  It was about a generation
earlier, but I think the principles were the same.