This may or may not be relevant but could there be
a connection with Sacajawea-- or rather with the root stem of her name?
Below is an excerpt from a blurb on the site of the U. S. Mint (announcing the
dollar coin) at http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/golden_dollar_coin/index.cfm?action="">
Steve Green
Western Folklife Center
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Sacagawea or Sacajawea? Various historians disagree over the pronunciation, meaning- either "Boat Launcher" or "Bird Woman", and spelling of her name - listed as either Sacagawea or Sacajawea, as well as a few other spellings, but all agree that her bravery and fortitude were instrumental to the success of Lewis & Clark's "Corps of Discovery." We have decided to use the spelling "SACAGAWEA" for our new dollar coin, based on several contemporary works on this topic. To quote from a recent publication: "Translated, her name means 'Bird Woman,' and in their attempts to spell
the Indians words, Lewis and Clark used variations of 'Sah-ca-gah-we-ah' and
'Sah-kah-gar-we-a.' (In 1814, when a version of the journals appeared, an
editor changed the spelling to Sacajawea, which was the preferred spelling
until recently, when most historians and official publications reverted back
to Sacagawea.) Additional references to the Sacagawea spelling can be found in Stephen E. Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage(Simon & Schuster, 1996) and on PBS's Web site for its critically acclaimed series on the Lewis and Clark expedition. ----- Original Message -----
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