The Siouan Indians | Page 5

to which
they pertain. At first glance, the names seem to be loosely applied and
perhaps vaguely defined, and this laxity in application and definition
does not disappear, but rather increases, with closer examination.
There are special reasons for the indefiniteness of Indian nomenclature:
The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed most of them
remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i.e., the stage in
which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary symbols, but by
means of arbitrary associations,(18) and in this stage names are
connotive or descriptive, rather than denotive as in the scriptorial stage.
Moreover, among the Indians, as among all other prescriptorial peoples,
the ego is paramount, and all things are described, much more largely
than among cultured peoples, with reference to the describer and the
position which he occupies--Self and Here, and, if need be, Now and
Thus, are the fundamental elements of primitive conception and
description, and these elements are implied and exemplified, rather than
expressed, in thought and utterance. Accordingly there is a notable
paucity in names, especially for themselves, among the Indian tribes,
while the descriptive designations applied to a given group by
neighboring tribes are often diverse.
The principles controlling nomenclature in its inchoate stages are
illustrated among the Siouan peoples. So far as their own tongues were
concerned, the stock was nameless, and could not be designated save
through integral parts. Even the great Dakota confederacy, one of the
most extensive and powerful aboriginal organizations, bore no better
designation than a term probably applied originally to associated tribes
in a descriptive way and perhaps used as a greeting or countersign,
although there was an alternative proper descriptive term.--"Seven
Council-fires"--apparently of considerable antiquity, since it seems to
have been originally applied before the separation of the Asiniboin.(19)
In like manner the ¢egiha, {~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED
T~}{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}iwe're, and Hotcañgara
groups, and perhaps the Niya, were without denotive designations for
themselves, merely styling themselves "Local People," "Men,"
"Inhabitants," or, still more ambitiously, "People of the Parent Speech,"

in terms which are variously rendered by different interpreters; they
were lords in their own domain, and felt no need for special title.
Different Dakota tribes went so far as to claim that their respective
habitats marked the middle of the world, so that each insisted on
precedence as the leading tribe,(20) and it was the boast of the Mandan
that they were the original people of the earth.(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
Huñkpapa; 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 Brulé, 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," "Brulé"," "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."
The meanings of most of the eastern names are lost; yet so far as they
are preserved they are of a kind with those of the interior. So, too, are
the subtribal names enumerated by Dorsey.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
PHONETIC AND GRAPHIC ARTS
The Siouan stock is defined by linguistic characters. The several tribes
and larger and smaller groups speak dialects so closely related as to
imply occasional or habitual association, and hence to indicate
community in interests and affinity in development; and while the arts
(reflecting as they did the varying environment of a wide territorial
range) were diversified, the similarity in language was, as is usual,
accompanied by similarity in institutions and beliefs.