Autonym of Mosopeleas-Ouesperies-Ofos

[Rankin, Robert L]

I think that about says it.  The Yazoos and Coroas were apparently Natchezan-speaking, according to explorers.  Swanton's idea was that Tunica /us^pi/ is the remains of the "osope" of Mosopelea.  One of his attested names, Ounspik (or something like that) had already lost the medial /o/ (I have no real info on where the -k comes from).  
 
It seems at least that /f/ does not simply represent a speech defect of Rosa Pierrette (or Pierrite -- it seems to have more than one spelling).
 
Bob

 
________________________________

From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu on behalf of Rory M Larson
Sent: Fri 3/2/2007 8:23 PM
To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: Autonym of Mosopeleas-Ouesperies-Ofos



> only "Ofo," of course, is actually attested in Ofo mouths, I think?

That seems to be the case, involving perhaps only one Ofo mouth.  The last paragraph in Swanton's historical introduction is worth quoting:

"After 1784 no mention of this tribe appears in histories or books of travel, and it was naturally supposed that it had long been extinct, when in November, 1908, the writer had the good fortune to find an Indian woman belonging to this tribe, of which she is the last representative, who remembered a surprising number of words of her language, when it is considered that the rest of her people had died when she was a girl.  She appears to have learned most of these from her old grandmother, who was also responsible for the positive statement that the name of their tribe was Ofo.  This woman, Rosa Pierrette, is living with the Tunica remnant near Marksville, La., and her husband belongs to the Tunica tribe.  Already in May, 1907, the writer had heard from the Tunica chief of the comparatively late existence of representatives of the Ofo, but from the fact that the one word this man could remember contained an initial f, it was assumed that it belonged to the Muskhogean linguistic family.  It was therefore a surprising and most interesting discovery that the Ofogoula of French writers must be added to the Biloxi as a second representative of the Siouan family in the region of the lower Mississippi.  In the use of an f it is peculiar, but its affinities appear to be first with the Biloxi and the eastern Siouan tribes rather than with the nearer Quapaw and the other Siouan dialects of the West."

The preceding history Swanton gives suggests that we are dealing with two separate names for what are presumably Ofos.  The earliest mention of them is supposed to be from 1699 and 1700, when French explorers became aware of a complex of about six or seven villages speaking at least three different languages about four leagues up the Yazoo River in northeastern Mississippi.  One village was the Tunica (Tonica/Toumika), another the Ofo-gula (Opocoula/Offogoula, with -gula being the Mobilian ending for "people"), and another the Uspi (Ouispe/Oussipe/Ounspik).  Other names given included Taposa, Chaquesauma, Outapa/Ouitoupa, Thysia, Yasoux and Coroa.  The languages included Jakou (Yazoo), Ounspik (Ofo ?), and Toumika (Tunica).

During the 18th century, these people seem to have declined and consolidated.  In 1721, a village of "Yasous mixed with Curoas and Ofogoulas" is mentioned.  In 1722, four groups are listed as having settlements on the Yazoo River: the Yasons, Courois, Offogoula, and Onspee nations, with a total population of only about 250 persons.  This is the last record of the Uspi that Swanton mentions.  In 1727, there are supposed to be three villages on the lower Yazoo, in which three different languages are spoken.  These seem to be the Yazoo, the Koroa, and the Ofo-gula.  Presumably the Uspi joined with the Ofo-gula in the mid 1720s.

In 1729, the Yazoo and Koroa joined the Natchez uprising against the French, and pressured the Ofo-gula to join them.  The latter resisted, and withdrew to join the Tunica, who were staunchly pro-French.  By 1739, they were a small tribe of fourteen or fifteen warriors who had recently settled next to Fort Rosalie, under frequent assault by the Chickasaw, whose persecution of them continued at least until 1758.

In 1739 and 1764, they are named as Ossogoulas.  Apparently whatever they were using for that [s/f] phoneme, it either varied by speaker or was something that could be understood either way by the French.

The connection of the Uspi with the Ofo is that the Tunica name for the Ofo was Us^pi.  But this seems to have been the name of a separate group that was absorbed into the Ofo, probably speaking a closely related language.  If I'm understanding this right, the Uspi name is probably not derived from moso-/ofo.

(This is a reanalysis based entirely on Swanton's brief historical discussion of the Ofo.  There may be other facts I don't yet know about that may modify that story!)

Rory