Vol IV. -
January-March, 1921 No.1
WYUKA CEMETERY--ORIGIN OF THE NAME
The secretary of the
Wyuka cemetery calls up to ask the origin of the cemetery name. This
inquiry has frequently been made of the Historical Society. It may be
well to put in printed form information upon this subject. In the
Dakota or Sioux language the intransitive verb wanka means to rest, to
lie down.
To recline, kun-iwanka.
The name of a couch is owanka. The pronunciation of wanka is very much
as though it were spelled wong-kah. In the Dakota or Sioux language
pronouns are incorporated with the verb, but for the third person
singular no incorporate pronoun is used. In order then, to find the
simplest form of the verb in Sioux we look to the third person
singular instead of to the infinitive as in English. Therefore wanka
exactly means in Dakota, he rests or he lies down.
The Nebraska legislature
in 1869 passed the act providing that eighty acres of land belonging
to the state of Nebraska, not more than three miles distant from the
state capitol building, should be selected by a board of trustees and
approved by the governor as a state cemetery. The act does not name
the cemetery. The name was given after the site had been located and
the tradition associated with the name, is that it was
"Indian" for resting place.
This is approximately
correct. Lincoln and Wyuka cemetery are located in what was Otoe
territory. The Otoe language is a dialect of the Dakota or Sioux
language. The Omaha and Ponca languages are likewise dialects of the
Dakota. The conversion of the Otoe word "wong-kah" into
Wyuka is easily understood. Very commonly Indian words are
mispronounced, due to the fact that the white man's ear does not
correctly catch the exact pronunciation of the Indian tongue. There
yet remains to be determined who of the early pioneers of Lincoln
found and bestowed the name Wyuka on the state cemetery.
