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Biological
Survey
Reptiles
& Amphibians Of Mankato
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Herping the Siouxland.
What's This??? Sounds funny doesn't
it. Well, let me explain. I've been debating whether I
should call it that or not...but when you get down to
it, it really is the most accurate description of what
I've been doing around here for years. OK. First of all.
A few definitions are in
order.
Herpetology: The
study of Reptiles and
Amphibians.
Herpers: The
People who study Reptiles and Amphibians.
Herps: Slang
for individual Reptiles and Amphibians. Many of which
can often times make nice pets. Not to be confused
with...
Herpes: A
sexually transmitted Viral Infection, which certainly
does Not make a nice pet at all.
We can all thank this terminology to
a Swedish Botanist and Physician named
Carl Linnaeus who laid down the foundations
for the modern scheme of taxonomy and is also known as
one of the founding fathers of modern ecology.
However...Carl was a 'Plant Guy' and apparently didn't
like Reptiles and Amphibians very much at all:
...."These foul and loathsome
animals are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale
color, cartilaginuos skeleton, filthy skin, fierce
aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice,
squalid habitation, and terrible venom; and so their
Creator has not exerted his powers to make more of
them." - Carolus Linnaeus (1758)
(So it would seem...this is how we got stuck with the
terminology.)
Thanks a lot,
Carl!
Now...On to the next
word...
"Siouxland":
This area includes present day Southwest Minnesota,
Northwest Iowa and Eastern South Dakota. My earliest
recollection of the name "Siouxland" came from reading
the works of
Frederick Manfred...an early literary hero of mine
who also lived ON the Blue Mound itself before that
portion of the quartzite highlands became part of
Blue Mounds State Park. It was at this place that
he wrote some of my favorite works: "Scarlet
Plume"..."Lord Grizzly"...and "Conquering
Horse."...etc. All tales of the frontier from a
local perspective.
OK.
Moving right along. The word "Sioux"
is a name commonly used to describe the 7 tribes of the
Dakota Nation. The word itself
originated from a bit of nasty 'name calling' by their
old neighbors to the north...the Ojibwe.
Here is a
description of how it came to be from my old friend Emmett Smith
(independent professor and amateur historian) who was
"adopted" by a Chippewa family years ago and learned
their language:
"IT [/sioux/] is abbreviated from the
French phonetic rendering of an Ojibwe word for the
Lakota peoples (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, ie): /Nadowessioux/ (w/an >accent
grave< over the /e/), or 'little
snakes'.
In /ojibwemowin/
(phonetically) this is: 'Nah doh way sue'
IT Is a diminutive of /nadowe/ ['nah doh way'],
or '(big) snakes'
--and THAT was an
uncomplimentary Chippewa name for (you guessed it!) ...The Iroquois. (back East)!
(MY Adopted people have done rather well in the
business of fobbing off uncomplimentary tribal names for
neighbors, onto the goggling white people.)
Hence, now we call the /Ho Chunk/
people 'Winnebagoes', which means [approximately] 'Dirty
Water Folks', probably because they lived mainly
downstream from the Ojibwe, at least in historical
times, in Wisconsin.)
ONE Source indicates that 'nah doh
way sue' means also, specifically, massasauga rattle-snake(s)--if so,
this must be northern /ojibwemowin/, as the only name
for snake that I learnt, as I recall, is 'kanabec'."
...ALL (Belatedly!) for now, Prof Corbeau.
(Thanks Emmett!)
And so
now we have the full explanation of the terminology for
"Herping the Siouxland."
...or "Searching the 'Small Snake' country.
>---(:-~-~-~-~-~- - - The map up above pretty
much shows the range limits of my annual wanderings. The
major river valleys shown are (from left to right)
...the James, the Big Sioux, the Rock river, Des Moines
river, the Blue Earth and finally...the Minnesota. I'll
be interested to hear from anyone who lives in or near
the circle. Let me know what you see crawling around out
there!
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