Where the waters gather and the rivers meet : (o-ki-zu wa-kpa) (to meet, to unite) : an atlas of the eastern Sioux

172 Pages·1994·7.427 MB·English

by  Durand, Paul C., Durand, Robin Siev

W here the W aters Gather
and the Rivers Meet
(O-KI-ZU W A-KPÄ)
(To meet, to unite)
An Atlas of the Eastern Sioux
by
Paul Durand
Edited by
Robin Siev Durand
Valerie Maisonneuve,
Programmes Culturels
Illustrations by
Rene E. Durand i
Additional copies of this book may be ordered at a cost of $14.95
plus $2.00 shipping and handling from:
Paul C. Durand
15341 Red Oaks Road SE
Prior Lake, MN 55372
£l
I
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-71463
ISBN 0-9641469-0-8
Copyright Paul C. Durand ©1994
TXu 329-462
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the author/publisher.

Table of C ontents
Dedication......................................................................... p. 1,11
Prelude................................................................................p. Ill
Introduction........................................................................p. IV
Acknowledgements....................................... p. V
Pronunciation Guide..........................................................p. VI
Anatomy of a Language....................................................p. VII
Dakota geographical place names...................................p. 1
Ojibwa (Chippewa) place names
on the northern and eastern peripheries.........................p. 121
Cross Index (Dakota).........................................................p. a-p
Cross Index (Ojibwa).........................................................p. q-v
List of Illustrations
Warrior........................................................................Title Page
Clem Felix..........................................................................p. Ill
CE-TAN KA-GA-PI..............................................................p. 12
HE-HA-KA HNA-KA WA-KPA-DAN....................................p. 18
HO-GAN O-WAN-KA KIN..................................................p. 26
MA-KA YU-SO-TA..............................................................p. 46
MA-TOWA-KAN................................................................p. 48
MDETO-KA.......................................................................p. 53
Star.....................................................................................p. 56
O-WA-MNI-YO-MNI............................................................p. 69
Signature of SHA-GO-BAI & SHAGOBENS.......................p. 76
Battle of Shakopee............................................................p. 78
Dedicated to my friend
LOUIE GARCIA, historian,
in the far prairies of North Dakota
whose wife, Hilda, is a descendant of
l-te Wa-kin-yan, the Ti-za-ptan-na.
To the fond memory of Clem Felix, hiking companion and teller
of tales whose ancestors were the Santees and the French
Canadian trappers. Clem was born in 1892 on the Niobrara, Santee
Reservation, Nebraska, and attended Pipestone Indian School. As
a boy his parents returned via horse-drawn wagon to their original
homesite near Prior Lake. Much like the apostolic succession, he
was our connecting link with the distant plains, the far mountains
and the wild West of our imagination. After raising a large family
and farming for many years, he became disabled, ironically, by
a horse and so retired. Many happy days were spent with this
eminently friendly, modest man exploring the lower Minnesota
River Valley and its tributaries until his death at Shakopee in 1973.
Ill
Prelude
The writing of history, that which gets recorded, is almost always presented
from the viewpoint of the dominant culture of the time. This is what occurred
when the first Europeans arrived on this continent or the “New World” as it
was called by them. It may have been a new land or an undiscovered world
but it certainly wasn’t new to the ones who lived here; rather it was an an­
cient and familiar place, a world with myths and beginnings and cycles -
reasons why life is lived in a certain way. This truly was an old and estab­
lished world. There were names of places that told of what happened here,
that described the center of earth, or the war of the sky god and the god of
the nether regions. Yes, this certainly was an old and active world. That was
soon to change, however; the newcomers would change all that. They would
put their names on these places. Their heroes would now identify these
places and the ancient names would fade, soon to be forgotten. Where the
Waters Gather and the Rivers Meet will not allow that to happen. This book
is a very important work. It will preserve the past before American history
began. Future generations will know there was a time before American his­
tory. I am honored to share coffee and conversation with Paul Durand, the
author of this valuable book.
- The Rev. Gary Cavender
Wahpeton/Mdewakanton Dakota
IV
INTRODUCTION
As a boy in Minneapolis, it was a simple matter to hike to the surrounding
countryside. Of the string of lakes to the west, Cedar and Brownie were still
in a partial state of wildness; Glenwood, Twin and Sweeney Lakes were to
us the last frontier. Beyond to the northwest lay the mysterious Medicine Lake
source of the slowly meandering Bassett’s Creek, a fit land for any intrepid
explorer. Prairies to the south were not far beyond Minnehaha Creek. The
Falls, colorful sandstone cliffs, springs and caves along the way to Fort
Snelling were our raison d’etre. And the Fort with the wide, blue Minnesota
Valley fading into the sunny quiet of an afternoon, would conjure up images
of long ago. But wait! Is this not an old Indian trail to Good Road’s and
Shakopee’s? And that sound, the throb of a distant drum!
Through the means of these place-names, the land will be made to give up
its silence—to speak out, to tell of a land peopled by spirits and monsters,
alive again with laughing children, tipis, and dusky warriors on the warpath.
These names are a witness to the sound of the flute, its folklore and spiritual
beliefs. It has been said the frontiers of speech are the only real ones, for we
carry them with us. Language is the vehicle of tradition; it might even be said
that language is tradition itself, the living past.
Locations are sometimes described as the left bank or the right bank of a
river. Just keep in mind that this rule applies only as one faces down-stream.
The left bank would naturally be to one’s left—and there it remains forever.
Should one paddle upstream, the left bank which has not moved one iota,
would of course be on the right side.
The greater part of these place names has been gleaned from the field-
notes and maps of Joseph Nicollet, commissioned in the 1830’s by the U.S.
Government to survey the Upper Missouri and Mississippi River Basins. His
great love of the countryside with its immense distances, its lakes and hills
reads as an emotional poetic epic. This savant not only served as a cartog­
rapher, but also as an ethnologist recording many of the Dakota and Ojibwa
customs, traditions and languages plus place names by the hundreds. Other
early travelers such as Zebulon Pike, Giacomo Beltrami, Major Long and the
Protestant missionaries all left these delightfully descriptive names in lesser
number. This, then, is part of their legacy.
Paul Durand