Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-10-27
IOWA..

apropos of the matter comes to light
an article written by L. F. Andrews
number of years ago which ap-
peared in the Annals of Iowa and
which will be interesting to clubs,
teachers and pupils who have had
the matter open for discussion.
"Labored and exhaustive efforts
have been made to ascertain the Or
igin of the word Iowa" and deter
mine it's Specification. 1t is gener-
ally given, as 1 believe enormously,
as meaning THE Beautiful Land
Legends and traditions relating to
it have been traced back centuries.
Words have been twisted, distorted
and corrupted until they bear little
or no photographic relation to that
which the tradition searchers have
reached in their quest.
1t is claimed by some that the
word is of Dakota origin, and by
the French was written "Aiouez,"
and applied to a branch of the OtOe
tribe inhabiting territory west of
the Missouri river. Gradually the
word became Angelicised to "Iowa, -
which in the Dakota language
means something to write or paint
WITH
Hildreth, in his history of the
American aborigines, gives the de-
rivation from "Py-hoja,' name
applied by the Omahas to tribe in
this territory, and which means
"Grey snow" or "Drowsy Ones"
tradition having it, that when the
Iowa tribes left the parental tribe
in the north, a snow storm prevail
ed. Schoolcraft says the Iowa tribes
called themselves "Pa-ho-ches,"
which means "dusty nose" or dir
ty face" from the fact that they
first settled near the mouth of riv-
er where there were sand bars, and
the wind blew sand and dust in
their faces. At an early date their
location is fixed at the junction of
the Des Moines river with the Mis-
sissippi, occupying what now COM
prises Lee, Van Buren, and Davis
counties; thence they moved up the
Missouri river into Dakota; thence
back to the head waters of the Lit
tie Platte, now Southern Iowa and
Northern Missouri; thence to the
head waters of Charlton and Grand
rivers in Iowa. During all of these
nigrations they called themselves,
Pa-ho-ches."
The history of the North Ameri-
can Indian she's very strongly that
the original home of the Dakota
stock of the very early Ganowanian
family was on the far western side
of the continent, while that of the
Algonkin was on the eastern; that
the Sank and Fox tribes were of
Algonkin origin, and descendants Of
the Chippewas and Pottawattamies,
once strong and powerful. This is
also indicated by their dialects; for
in the language Of western tribes
labial and vowel sounds prevail,
while in those of Eastern they are
gutteral. In the Oldest tradition
extant of the Algonkins, Nicollet
gives the word "A-ho-la-king," as
signifying Beautiful Land"
The original families have been
divided and succeeded by hundreds
of branches and their language also
divided into hundreds of dialects, so
that little remains Of the old.
There is little or no estheticism
or sentiment with the Indian. He
was, and is, a creature Of circum-
stances. He adapts himself always
to present conditions. The future
concerns him very little; the past is
consigned largely to oblivion. His
language is one of signs, circum-
stances and conditions. A single
word often has several significa-
lions, the real application being de-
termined by a gesture, an incident
or an event. The best authority for
the language of a tribe is the tribe
who used it.
1t is conceded generally that the
state of Iowa derived its name from
a river; that the river was named
from a tribe of Indians. According
to Schoolcraft, the Indians occupy
ing the territory along the river
were called, "Pa-ho-ches," hence
the river did not derive it's name
from their nomenclature. The most
extravagant linguist could not so
distort it.
The WORD Iowa" is unquestion-
ably a corruption of the word