Halito All: George Ann, I don't doubt that Byington is right, after all he is the authority. However, we have all seen the situation where Choctaw words, as many English words, have more than one meaning. This quite clearly must be a case like that or perhaps some other explanation is involved. My sources are the many translated names in history, such as Hopiah Isketena - Little Leader and Hopiah Humma - Red Leader. Unfortunately I am at a loss as to which meaning might have been used for my ancestor. I suggest two possibilities could have been at work here. One could have been that there indeed have been two definitions at work at the same time. The other could be that as the custom of bone picking died off, the meaning of the word changed. We have seen this occur as well, in many cultures. This is quite an interesting discussion, I'd like to get the answer, however so that I could get some clues about my ancestors. Imafo __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com