When the Kwapa were discovered by the French they dwelt in five villages,
described by the early chroniclers as the Imaha (Imaham, Imahao), Capaha,
Toriman, Tonginga (Doginga, Topinga), and Southois (Atotchasi,
Ossouteouez). Three of these village names are known to all the tribe: 1,
Uʞa’qpa-qti, Real Kwapa; 2, Ti’-u-a’-d¢i-man (Toriman), Ti’-u-a-d¢i’ man
(of Mrs Stafford); 3, U-zu’-ti-u’-wĕ (Southois, etc). The fourth was
Tan’wan ji’ʞa, Small village. Judging from analogy and the fact that the
fifth village, Imaha, was the farthest up Arkansas river, that village
name must have meant, as did the term Omaha, the upstream people.
The following names of Kwapa gentes were obtained chiefly from Alphonsus
Vallière, a full-blood Kwapa, who assisted the author at Washington, from
December, 1890, to March, 1891:
Nan’panta, a Deer gens; Onphŭn enikaciʞa, the Elk gens; Qid¢ e’nikaci’ʞa,
the Eagle gens; Wajiñ’ʞa enikaci’ʞa, the Small-bird gens; Hañ’ʞa
e’nikaci’ʞa, the Hañ’ʞa or Ancestral gens; Wasa’ e’nikaci’ʞa, the
Black-bear gens; Mantu’ e’nikaci’ʞa, the Grizzly-bear (?) gens; Te
e’nikaci’ʞa, the Buffalo gens (the ordinary buffalo); Tuqe’-nikaci’ʞa, the
Reddish-yellow Buffalo gens (answering to Nuqe of the Ponka, Yuqe of the
Kansa, ¢uqe of the Osage); Jawe’ nikaci’ʞa, the Beaver gens; Hu
i’nikaci’ʞa, the Fish gens; Mika’q‘e ni’kaci’ʞa, the Star gens; Pe’tan
e’nikaci’ʞa, the Crane gens; Cañʞe’-nikaci’ʞa, the Dog (or Wolf?) gens;
Wakan’ʇă e’nikaci’ʞa, the Thunder-being gens; Tand¢an’ e’nikaci’ʞa or
Tan’d¢an tañ’ʞa e’nikaci’ʞa, the Panther or Mountain-lion gens;
Ke-ni’kaci’ʞa, the Turtle gens; Wĕs‘ă e’nikaci’ʞa, the Serpent gens; Mi
e’nikaci’ʞa, the Sun gens. Vallière was unable to say on which side of the
tribal circle each gens camped, but he gave the personal names of some
members of most of the gentes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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