Okams, Okaga, Ugaxpa

[Robert Myers]

I'm new to the Siouan list and am hoping to share historical materials I've been collecting for years pertaining to Siouan-speaking peoples. I'm not a linguist but am hoping some of these materials will be helpful to specialists. So here goes!

I invite comparison of the following with Ugaxpa, the name the Quapaw traditionally called themselves.

Robert Myers
Champaign, Illinois
geocultural at yahoo.com

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Col C11A 66/fol. 236-256v. Fonds des Colonies, C11A, Correspondance Generale: Canada. The Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France. 

"Denombrement des nations sauvages qui ont rapport au gouvernement du Canada...", 1736. 
...
"? [River] des missouris
   les missouris
   les okams   oukamsce' [Kansa]
   les Sotos
   les Panis
   ..."

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Stephen Return Riggs, A Dakota-English Dictionary, ed. James Owen Dorsey, Department of the Interior, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing  Office, 1890, pp. 359, 360. 

o'-kah, cont. of o'kaga; to the south.
o'-ka-ga, n. the south. T., itokaga.
o'-ka-ga, adv. southwards; down stream, since the streams in the Dakota country run        southwards. T., itokaga; hutabya.

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 James R. Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual, eds. Raymond J. DeMallie and Elaine A. Jahner, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991, pp. 124-127. 

"The Four Winds, related by Red Rabbit. Recorded sometime 1896-1914 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. 

The Four Winds are wakan. They have their homes in the wet and the north and the east and south. In the west is a high mountain and on top of the mountain there is a flat place. This is where He of the West (Wiyohpeyate Wicasa) dwells. Sometmes he is called Yata....

Woziya is the North Wind. He is a giant with vicious disposition. What he touches grows cold and dies....

Wiyohiyanpa is the East Wind. In the mysterious language he is called Yanpa. Beyond the lands, in the waters is a flat island. This is the hoe of Yanpa. ...

Itokaga is the South Wind. In the mysterious language he is called Ito and Okaga. His home is at that side of the earth where the sun stands when he has made half his journey over the world. His tipi is very large, and made of vines growing so closely that no rain or wind can ass through them. In this tipi it is always pleasant, though there is never a fire there. At the rear of the tipi, opposite the door is where Okaga rests. At the side of the tipi his woman, Wohpe, rests.
Okaga makes beautiful things. He first made the flowers and the seeds. When Wohpe first came to his father's tipi she fell from the stars and she had a beautiful dress. Okaga learned from this dress to make beautiful things. HIs yonger brother, Yamni lives in his tipi. Yamni is small an dweak, and he does not work. But he is the messenger for many of the supernatural people. 
Okaga is the giver of life. The water fowls and the meadow-larks are his akicita. The cranes are his criers. His breath is warm and brings good weather. He is ever kind, his heart is good towards all, so that it is not necessary to invoke him to get his help. His only contention is with his brother Woziya, who tried to steal his woman.
 



 
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