(21)
In the more carefully studied confederacies the constituent groups
generally bore designations apparently used for convenient distinction in
the confederation; sometimes they were purely descriptive, as in the case
of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Oto, and several others;
again they referred to the federate organization (probably, possibly to
relative position of habitat), as in the Yankton, Yanktonai, and Hunkpapa;
more frequently they referred to geographic or topographic position, e.g.,
Teton, Omaha, Pahe'tsi, Kwapa, etc; while some appear to have had a
figurative or symbolic connotation, as Brule, Ogalala, and Ponka. Usually
the designations employed by alien peoples were more definite than those
used in the group designated, as illustrated by the stock name, Asiniboin,
and Iowa. Commonly the alien appellations were terms of reproach; thus
Sioux, Biloxi, and Hohe (the Dakota designation for the Asiniboin) are
clearly opprobrious, while Paskagula might easily be opprobrious among
hunters and warriors, and Iowa and Oto appear to be derogatory or
contemptuous expressions. The names applied by the whites were sometimes
taken from geographic positions, as in the case of Upper Yanktonai and
Cape Fear--the geographic names themselves being frequently of Indian
origin. Some of the current names represent translations of the aboriginal
terms either into English ("Blackfeet," "Two Kettles," "Crow,") or into
French ("Sans Arcs," "Brule"," "Gros Ventres"); yet most of the names, at
least of the prairie tribes, are simply corruptions of the aboriginal
terms, though frequently the modification is so complete as to render
identification and interpretation difficult--it is not easy to find Waca'ce
in "Osage" (so spelled by the French, whose orthography was adopted and
mispronounced by English-speaking pioneers), or Pa'qotce in "Iowa.
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