Thank you Jim, very interesting post.
I remember that in John P. Harringtons' "Lakota Primer" manuscript, (BAE Ms. 4796 in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution), he says that Ayuxwa means 'to get him sleepy upon something'. (JPH apparently thought that discussing etymologies of state and tribal names was a good topic for a children's primer.)
Do remember, as Doug and Ray have pointed out, that both the Santee and the Wahpeton, and any other Sioux expect for the Teton, call themselves Dakota, not Nakota. The only Dakotans who call themselves Nakota are the Stoney and Assiniboine.
Willem de Reuse
________________________________
From: Siouan Linguistics [SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] on behalf of Jimm G. GoodTracks [jgoodtracks at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 9:19 AM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Fw: THE NAME "IOWAY"
From: Jimm G. GoodTracks<mailto:jgoodtracks at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 9:18 AM
To: iowaysonline at yahoogroups.com<mailto:iowaysonline at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: THE NAME "IOWAY"
Báxoje n. Ioway Indian (lit.: “snow grey”) (person, the people, the language or the tribe). [NOTE: The term designates anything of Ioway origins. ALSO: The term refers to the traditional village near Fallis, Okla. and various sites around White Cloud, Kans. In recent times, it refers to Perkins, Okla. and White Cloud, KS area specifically.
There is some disagreement among people on the meaning and origin of the word Ioway. The term “Ioway” per se has no meaning, or at best, it is a corrupted term of unknown meaning, similar to the popular appellation “Sioux.”
All Siouan groups and some Algonquian (the Illinois, Miami, et.al.) called the Ioway by some form of their traditional name for themselves -- Báxoje. Only among the Lakota (Teton Sioux, et.al), Dakota (Wahpeton Sioux, et.al.) and “Nakota” (Santee Sioux, et.al.) exists a different term, namely: ayúxwa (L), ayúxba (D/N). S.Riggs states in 1890 that the term meant “sleepy ones” from the D/N verb: yúxba (be drowsy, sleepy). But it does NOT follow over to the Lakota dialect, as the verb “xwa” [“Ayuxba” = a- (on) + yu- (by hand; cause s.t.) + xwa (L.)/ xba (D.) (sleepy)]. So the D/N version should mean “cause to be...on” (or) “cause by hand on.” The Lakota equivalent is: ayóxpa (throw down on), which is matched by the D/Nakota term: yúxpa (broken off).
So a likely original meaning of the term “Ioway” could be “those broken off” -- a reference to a separation of a splinter group, as in the actual history of the Ioway from the Otoe.
Folktales and folk etymologies conceived by a variety of early writers have composed a number of spurious tales. Some of these tales indicate the term Ioway means “sleepy ones,” “bone marrow,” “fanciful,” “here is the spot,” and “this is the place to dwell in peace.” One popular tale suggests the term to mean “dusty head (or) dusty nose,” as a remembrance of an assumed whole tribal migration, walking on dry river beds. One can break up the term and force a suggested translation to that effect from the Lakota-Dakota term, but a problem with the elements of analysis are that they are not in the correct position to arrive at the meaning of “dusty head ~ nose.” In order to do that, the term would have to be: “pa-ayux^a.” As such, this latter possibility must be rejected as a possibility.
The fact that the L/D/Nakota, also being Siouan language, do not share the name “Báxoje” in some form similar with the rest of the Siouan language communities suggest a different historical relationship with the Ioway. There is no known term for the Ioway or Otoe among the Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan -- all northern Siouan groups.
Perhaps it was due to the remoteness of the L/D/Nakota in regions that now compose Montana, Dakota and Michigan where they, the L/D/Nakota resided when the “Báxoje” name developed amoung the ancestors of the historic Ioway-Otoe ancestors. And that it must have been at a later time, in the course of the migrations of the L/D/Nakota groups, that they came to give them a name different than the tribal groups to the south. Where and whenever it was they met, a name for the strangers was in order, and “Ayúxba” for the Ioway was the result.
Since most Algonquian languages (Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Menominee, et.al) have some form of this term “Ayúxba,” is to suggest that a direction of the first borrowing from the Dakota was likely by the Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Ottawa. Then later about the 17th century, it was adopted by the refugee tribes from the Michigan peninsula who were being forced out of their own homelands by white encroachment and thus, they took into their own languages the term without any folk etymologies. Algonquian linguistic forms support this borrowing of the term: a:yaho:we:wa (Fox), a:yohoea (Kickapoo), ayo:ho:we:w (Menominee).
About the 17th century, the French entered into indigenous country. Father Louis Andre (1676), Cavelier de la Salle (1881) asked the name of the people ahead of their exploration travels, and they learned the Algonquian form of the term “Ioway.” They forthwith adopted these Algonquian terms, and adjusted the term to French linguistics which rendered: Ayaouais, Ayaouez, Ajouez, Ayavois, etc.
In the 18th century, the Spanish picked up the term and again spelled it in Spanish linguistics as: Ayoa, Aiaoas, Hayuas. Then the English arrived and took the diphthong “ai” and transcribe it as an “I” from which time, the term began to written as such by the 1760s as “Ioway.” And by the early 1880s the officials of the US government invariably used the designation, even though Lt. J. Henry Carleton in his “The Prairie Logbooks” commented that the “Pa-ha-cae ~ Paxoche” do not call themselves “Ioway” nor do their surrounding Indian Nations call them by the term “Ioway.”
The “Americans,” had already decided that the name for the Báxoje Indians would was “Ioway” and thus all the area rivers, creeks, lakes and towns were dubbed “Ioway.” And that is the spelling used in all seven treaties made between the Báxoje and the US Government between 1824 and 1854. The spelling in English reflects the pronunciation during the Pioneer period. And in 1937, all tribal corporate charters were compelled to spell their tribal affiliations as “Iowa” to coincide with the orthography for the official state name. Nevertheless, the earlier pronunciation persists amongst the Báxoje people, who by the turn of the century were compelled to speak only English.
This synopsis composed from Mildred Mott, “A Synonymy of Names for The Ioway Indians”].
Hinjéga mintáwe Jiwére éwa^unna áre Baxóje idánahá th^íhšji umína, úngirage “Báxoje ha^ún ke,” é tára^o, My Otoe uncle who lived among the Ioway for a long time, he was telling me, “I’m just like (as) the Ioway.” Báxoje Jiwere tógre upárekikiñe ki, The Iowas and the Otoes understand one another. [W. Báxodse; Os. Báxodse; L.D. Ayúxba].
** Báxoje Chína, Iowa community (A reference to all Ioway members, enrolled or not enrolled, and descendants, irrespective wheather they live in or around the principal towns of Perkins and White Cloud). Báxojemi, an Ioway Indian female (woman (or) girl). Baxóje Wokígo, Ioway Society; Club (GM). [W. waaxóc; K/OmP. Páxoje; Os. Báxodse].
báxoje v.t. cut open; cut hole in: (I..., habáxoje; you..., rabáxoje; we..., hinbáxojewi; they..., baxójeñe). Idáre rógrigi báxojàšgun; aré wan^shíge ída axéweñàšgun, And so, he cut open the side (of the “wórahoje: sucks-them-in” ogre), and the people came out. [W. maan^á/ maanháp; K. babláze; Q. basté (pierce); H. haxúdi/ hobíhe; Cr. dak^ó·pi(ky)]. **SEE: rixóje.
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