Is the name Junktapurse actually Siouan?

[Rankin, Robert L]

Hi Scott,

Yup, it's Tutelo OK.  It is a variant spelling of the place name found in the Fontaine list of "Saponi" words from Ft. Christanna published by Alexander.  On his list the spelling is much clearer.  I included it in a paper on Saponi that I wrote back in the early 1980s.  Here is the section from that paper:

Hodke tok ire chunkete posse  'Is this the way to the horse head'

     a.   ROAD  /hXtk(o)/
          Cognates: Tutelo         hetkoq       'road  (Dorsey, Hewitt)
                    Biloxi         netkohi      'path, road, street'
                                   nutkuhi                "
                                   natkohi                "
                    Ofo            nakhohi      'trail, road'

'Road'
 is cognate with the rest of Ohio Valley Siouan, as you can see.
Tok is 'which, that'
ire is 'you go'.  Re is 'go'.
And chunkete posse is your "Junktapurse" meaning 'horse head'.  No doubt about it.

Your discovery of the source of the place name (as the name of the town at the fort) answers one of my old questions.  I always wondered what "horse head" referred to.  I speculated that it was a tavern because it sounds like the name of a beer joint.  That would fit with the fact that a lot of the items on this colonial word list constitute a seduction dialog for soldiers to use with Indian women.  Vive l'amour.

Bob
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> Junktapurse, this is the name that has been given to the town that Fort Christanna was built. I began wondering about the origin of the word, however as it does not fit the known words of the Tutelo-Saponi language. For instance the word horse, chokita, comes from the word dog, choki. The word for head is pha or phasu. Therfore in order for Junktapurse to have meant horsehead the name would have to have been Pha-chokita or Phasu-chokita. 
 
> So where did they get Junktapurse from?
Is this word yet again an Algonquin word?