NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG I7 



paw, Osage, and Kansa tribes, while the smaller or Chiwere division, 

 according to Dorsey, is composed of the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri tribes. 

 Both divisions have numerous traditions regarding their westward 

 migration in rather late prehistoric times. The Dhegiha division claims 

 to have come westward to the mouth of the Ohio River as one 

 people. Here the Quapaw separated, going down the Mississippi 

 while the others went up the Missouri, resolving themselves gradually 

 into the Osage, Kansa, Omaha, and Ponca in about that order. The 

 Chiwere group have similar traditions to the effect that they were 

 originally one people with the Winnebago living on the Great Lakes 

 who subsequently moved in a southwesterly direction. The languages 

 of these tribes are actually very similar to that of the Winnebago. 

 At Green Bay, Wis., they divided, the Winnebago remaining while 

 the rest went on until they reached the Mississippi at the mouth of 

 the Iowa River. Here one band, the Iowa, remained while the others 

 proceeded to the west until they reached the mouth of the Grand 

 River in the present State of Iowa. Here the split between the Mis- 

 souri and Oto took place.' The general direction of this movement 

 and the assumed relationship of the tribes involved is corroborated 

 in the main by ethnographic, linguistic, and historical evidence. On 

 the other hand, the time at which the earlier movements occurred and 

 the exact lines of migration remain obscure. There is such great 

 variation in the traditions among the various tribes, and even between 

 the different versions within the same tribe, that complete acceptance 

 of any of them as regards temporal and geographic details seems im- 

 possible. Since only certain tribes of each division moved into Ne- 

 braska, these alone need be considered in detail. Of the Dhegiha group 

 these are the Omaha and the Ponca, and of the Chiwere division, the 

 Oto in particular, and the Iowa and Missouri secondarily. 



According to Fletcher and La Flesche the name Omaha means 

 " against the current " or " upstream " in contrast to the Quapaw 

 " with the current " or " downstream," and was fixed prior to 1540 

 as indicated by De Soto's (assumed) contact with the Quapaw at that 

 time.' Omaha traditions place their original home in the east but, ac- 

 cording to the above authorities, are vague as to their westward move- 



* Summed up by Swanton and Dixon, 1914, pp. 385-389. 



' Dr. John R. Swanton informs me that on cultural and historical grounds he 

 strongly doubts the identification of the " Pacaha " (mentioned by three of 

 De Soto's chroniclers) as the Quapaw. This generally accepted identification 

 has rested mainly on the apparently inverted term " Capaha " as given solely by 

 Garcilasso, who appears to have been the least accurate of all the chroniclers. 

 This criticism also applies to Dorsey, 1886, p. 222. 



