an Osage Imaha

[Robert Myers]

The following is apparently another reference to "Imaha". This is excerpted from the 1721 manuscript account of
Le Gac, one of the directors of the Company of the Indies. The company employed La Harpe to explore the Arkansas River tribes in eastern Oklahoma.

 


"Noms des nations situees tant au
Nord qui nord nord ouest qui sont jusqu'au Panihouasas [Paniassa] au dessus desprecedens"


 


"Les Thouacanne [Tawakoni], Les Iriscario [Yscani], Les
Cancey [Plains Apache], Les Chite?, Les Youanne [Yojuane], Les Canouches [Ahuache/Panimaha?], et les Hemaan qu'on nomme
Ozage ville separ'ee des autres Ozages."


  

I understand this to mean that "Hemaan" is the name of an Osage village separated from the other Osage. I wonder if Hemaan is a another version of "Imaha". (Omaha and Quapaw examples are also noted.) In La Harpe’s 1719 journal of his journey from the Red River
to the Arkansas River, he reached the Touacara [Tawakoni] nation. “At a musket shot from
their habitation we crossed a beautiful stream, surrounded by a clear forest,
above which are the villages situated upon hillocks, along the southwest branch
of the Alcansas River.” In a footnote to the manuscript copy, the French
geographer De Beaurain says, “Which they called Imaham, at the latitude of 37°
45’. Situated from the Nassonites eighty-nine leagues in a straight line to the
north.” (Margry) Eighteenth-century printed and manuscript maps deriving from La Harpe's trip note the village visited on the Arkansas River as "Imaha" or "Imahan". 

Speculation: Maps based on the 1670's Marquette/Jolliett expedition note the Emamoueta/Emam8eta on the Arkansas River. Maps from the next decade based on LaSalle show the Mahrout which may or may not be the same people. How likely is it that this was a version of  "Imaha ton-won" ("Imaha town" in Osage)? Could this be the origin of the name Mento? 

Tixler, a French traveler among the Osage in the early 1800's noted that the "Pani Mohawks" used to be Osage but lost their language. 

Robert Myers
Champaign, Illinois




       
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