The Name: Manataka

From the Manataka Website:

"Dear Manataka:
I would like to know where your name came from? What language? Just curious. John Boy. "

"Dear John Boy:
We are thankful for your question. It has been asked many times in the past.
The word Manataka has been spelled various ways over the years. In 1903, it was spelled locally as 'Manatauka' by a group calling themselves the Improved Order of Red Men, Manatauka Tribe -- Manatakau Council. It is believed this group was founded and operated by half-bloods and full bloods of several tribes. (Their names appear on census rolls) A record was found from 1863 recorded by a government surveyor spelling it Mahnatakah. In 1763, a French trader spelled it Monataukau and who told by Indians the word meant 'place of peace' to the word. The word was credited to the Kaw in 1789 by the French, but there is no evidence for this claim. The Ojibwe (or a closely associated nearby tribe) have also been given credit, but again we have no supporting evidence."

The Improved Order of Red Men is a fraternity that traces its origins back to 1765 and was originally known as the Sons of Liberty. It was this group that dressed as Mohawk Indians and conducted what is known as the Boston Tea Party. After the War of 1812 the name was changed to the Society of Red Men and later to the Improved Order of Red Men. NATIVE AMERICANS WERE DENIED MEMBERSHIP in the IORM until 1974, when the 106th session of the Great Council eliminated the racial requirement making Native Americans eligible for membership for the first time in the IORM's history!  It’s Manataka Tribe No. 67 was instituted in Hot Springs around 1887. By 1899 it had 111 members in Hot Springs. The woman’s auxiliary, Minnehaha Council No. 1 (a Degree of Pocahontas Council) was established in Hot Springs by 1901. The Manataka in Hot Springs ceased to exist not because of secret government and church designs, but because the Great Council of Arkansas was in trouble with the national office. The Improved Order of Red Men still exists, with it’s national headquarters in Waco, Texas. See our photo of an early IORM “tribe”, complete with black wigs and “ceremonial regalia“, in the Manataka History section of this exposure.

"It is said the Spanish gave the spelling to the French who gave it to the English. It is believed these spellings are rough translations in English taken from a now extinct language of the Tula Indians whose main village was called Tanico - located about 35 miles southwest of present day Hot Springs near the town of Caddo Gap."

Manataka is relying on information developed by the politically motivated 1936 Desoto Commission and the 1857 Schoolcraft proposal. One of the difficulties in tracing Desoto's exact route is the lack of archeological evidence at this time.  Tracing the route requires the examination of the expedition's journals, which might or might not be accurate in every detail - especially when comparing them with such things as today's tribal locations.  In addition, the journals are open to individual interpretations by those studying them.  One recent study, disclaimed in some circles, places Tanico (Cavase) near present Forsyth, Missouri, and the village of the Tula near present Harrison, Arkansas.   In any event, Tanico was not a Tula village. 

"The Tula also maintained small hunting camps all along the Ouachita River from Caddo Gap all the way to Manataka (Hot Springs)."

About the only thing that can be said with some certainty is the Indian groups along the Oucahita River in the Sixteenth Century  were related to the Kadohadacho.

"Some historians say the Tula were Caddoan in origin because of their location and trade language, however, the only connection the Tula had with the Caddo was their trade language. Many other aspects of their culture, lodges, ceremonies, etc. are unique to the Tula. There is no known meaning of the word Manataka in the Caddoan language. After a fierce and bloody battle with Hernando Desoto's Conquistadors in 1541, the Tula became infested with disease and eventually died out and ruminants of the tribe melded with surrounding Caddoan language-group tribes. It is believed several of the last remaining families of the Tula were taken by the Osage during raids between 1750 - 1800. "

A fairly difficult statement to make, implying that the cultural and ceremonial practices of the Tula are known. Very little at all is known about the Tula. Rather than ‘eventually” dying out, they disappeared rather quickly from the scene after contact with Desoto. We do know, from de la Vega Garcilaso, that the Tula practiced annular deformation of the skull.

"The meaning of the word, Place of Peace, is taken from the symbol of Manataka and several stories found among various tribes who visited the area."

Not one tribe we have contacted supports this.

"The U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service has three names recorded - 1. Tanico - that we know is not correct - it was the principal village of the Tula located 35 miles SW of Hot Springs. They mistakenly gave it this name because it is said that Tanico had hot springs nearby. The Caddo River that ran beside the village contains a hot springs coming up in the river a few feet from shore. 2. Nowasalon - a Tula word meaning, "Breath of Healing". We know this is not the correct name for the area because the word only referred to the water and the heavy blankets of vapors emitted from the hot water springs - not the entire area. 3. Manataka.
We take the third name - the government would not lie you know.
There is a great deal more that can be said about the word Manataka and its meaning, but we hope that this brief explanation helps you. Editor "

Tanico was not a Tula village. The Tula village was known as Tula (Tulla).  Tanico is a variant spelling of Tunica (also Canicon, Janequo, Toniqua).

The language of the Tula is unknown. Even MAIC admits that it is extinct in a preceding paragraph, so how can MAIC now claim “Nowasalon” is a Tula word meaning “Breath of Healing”?  Like "manataka", the word "nowasalon" is untraceable to any known American Indian language, including Tunica, Caddo, and the Siouan language group.  

The language of the Tula was fairly distinct in and of itself. Even Desoto, who always picked up interpreters before entering into other tribal areas was - for the first time in his explorations - stumped when he attempted to communicate with the Tula.  It took several days for interpreters to be found.  Interpreters who spoke the Tula language were few, primarily because, according to the journals, the surrounding tribes "had been always at war with the lords of the (Tula) province, they had no converse, nor did they understand each other".

There is a small 27 acre natural lake in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, named Manataka Lake.  The county name of Lackawanna is a corrupted Delaware word, as are many place names in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the original meaning behind many place names cannot be determined. If the word “manataka” is a corrupted Delaware term, then it has been changed so drastically that even the foremost Delaware language experts cannot recognize it.

There is a Dakota Sioux term for “hot springs”, “mni-khata” (mni - ‘water’ and khata - ‘to be hot’. If this is the source for “Manataka”’ then it would have to been brought to the Arkansas area in recent times by Whites familiar with the springs in Dakota. This might have been through a railroad entrepreneur. The more southerly Siouan language speaking tribes (Omaha, Ponca, Kaw, Osage, Quapaw) do not have a “M” for the first syllable in their terms for water.  However, this as a source for "Manataka" does not explain the lake in Pennsylvania.

The corruption of place names from the original is not unusual.  How many readers from Arkansas would recognize that the name for the town of Smackover comes from the French "Chemin Couvert"?  Then, there’s always the chance of a practical joke, such as the one the Peoria pulled on Father Jacques Marquette in 1673 when he asked the name of another tribe that lived in their area.

Some American Indian sounding names are fabrications by novelists, poets, and playwrights. There are towns whose names come from Cooper’s novels and Longfellow's “Song of Hiawatha“. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio have cities that are named from John Augustus Stone’s 1829 melodrama “Metamora: Last of the Wampanoags!”.

Both the terms "Manataka" and "No-Wa-Sa-Lon" first appeared connected to Hot Springs in two promotional brochures issued in St. Louis by the Iron Mountain Railway in 1893.  Although the author of these booklets is unknown,  the well known author  J.W. Buel wrote a 1880 book on "Indian legends" for the Iron Mountain Railway in which he penned "Mannetata" for a mythological character - the "Child of the Sun".