Ho

Ho, symbol for the element holmium.

or Huang Ho English Yellow River

River, northern, central, and eastern China. The second longest river in China and one of the world's longest, it flows 3,395 mi (5,464 km) from the Plateau of Tibet generally east to the Yellow Sea (Huang Hai). In its lower reaches it has often overflowed its banks, flooding vast areas of rich farmland. Its outlet has shifted over the years to enter the Yellow Sea at points as far apart as 500 mi (800 km). Irrigation and flood-control works have been maintained for centuries, and dams, begun in the mid-1950s, exploit the river's hydroelectric potential.

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or Ho-shen

(born 1750, China—died Feb. 22, 1799, Beijing) Infamous Chinese courtier who abused his influence with the Qianlong emperor to assume high ministerial positions and control revenue disbursements and personnel recruiting. His embezzlement of funds intended for suppressing the White Lotus rebellion prolonged the fighting and drove the imperial troops to looting, consequently undermining the authority of the Qing dynasty. He was arrested by the Qianlong emperor's successor and forced to commit suicide.

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also Ho-chungra or Winnebago

North American Indian people who live in the Midwestern U.S., notably Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. Their language belongs to the Siouan language family, and their name means “People of the Big Voice.” Before the 17th century, the Ho-Chunk lived in what is now eastern Wisconsin. By the early 19th century, as a result of their participation in the fur trade, they had expanded into southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. Kinship underlay traditional Ho-Chunk social organization, and was based upon 12 clans; clan membership was determined through the father's line. The Ho-Chunk lived in villages of dome-shaped wickiups, cultivated corn, squash, beans, and tobacco, and hunted bison. Their major ceremony was the medicine dance, in which both men and women participated. The Ho-Chunk were involved in the Black Hawk War of 1832, after which most of the tribe was removed to other Midwestern states. At the turn of the 21st century they numbered some 10,000 individuals.

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formerly Saigon

City (pop., 2004 est.: city, 3,452,100; 2005 est.: urban agglom., 5,065,000), southern Vietnam. It lies along the Saigon River north of the Mekong River delta. The Vietnamese first entered the region, then part of the kingdom of Cambodia, in the 17th century. In 1862 the area, including the town, was ceded to France. After World War II Vietnam declared its independence, but French troops seized control and the First Indochina War began. The Geneva conference in 1954 divided the country, and Saigon became the capital of South Vietnam. In the Vietnam War, it was the headquarters for U.S. military operations; it was captured by North Vietnamese troops in 1975 and renamed for Ho Chi Minh. Rebuilding since the war has promoted its commercial importance.

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orig. Nguyen Sinh Cung

(born May 19, 1890, Hoang Tru, Viet.—died Sept. 2, 1969, Hanoi) President (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Son of a poor scholar, he was brought up in a rural village. In 1911 he found work on a French steamer and traveled the world, then spent six years in France, where he became a socialist. In 1923 he went to the Soviet Union; the next year he went to China, where he started organizing exiled Vietnamese. He founded the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and its successor, the Viet Minh, in 1941. In 1945 Japan overran Indochina, overthrowing its French colonial rulers; when the Japanese surrendered to the Allies six months later, Ho and his Viet Minh forces seized the opportunity, occupied Hanoi, and proclaimed Vietnamese independence. France refused to relinquish its former colony, and the First Indochina War broke out in 1946. Ho's forces defeated the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, after which the country was partitioned into North and South Vietnam. Ho, who ruled in the north, was soon embroiled with the U.S.-backed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the south in what became known as the Vietnam War; North Vietnamese forces prevailed over the south six years after Ho's death.

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or Cheng Ho orig. Ma Sanbao

(born circa 1371, Kunyang, Yunnan province, China—died April 1433, Calicut, India) Eunuch admiral and diplomat who helped extend Chinese maritime and commercial influence throughout the region bordering on the Indian Ocean.The Yongle emperor named Zheng commander in chief of missions to the “Western Oceans.” He first set sail in 1405 and on this mission visited Champa (southern Vietnam), Siam (Thailand), Malacca, and Java, traveled through the Indian Ocean as far as Sri Lanka, and returned to China in 1407. Subsequent voyages took him to Arabia, the eastern coast of Africa, Southeast Asia, and India. Chinese emigration to, and influence in, Southeast Asia increased in the wake of these missions, resulting in tributary trade to China that lasted into the 19th century.

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The Hocągara (Hochungara) or Hocąks (Ho-Chunks) are a Siouan-speaking Indian Nation originally from Wisconsin and northern Illinois, but due to forced emigration, they are also found in Nebraska, where about half the nation now lives. They are most closely related to the Chiwere peoples (the Ioway, Oto, and Missouria), and more distantly to the Dhegiha (Quapaw, Kansa, Omaha, Ponca, and Osage).

Migration Myth

In the story that follows, the Bear Clan assumes the foundation role for the whole nation, and when they land they find the nation's friendship tribe, the Menominee. The Bear Clan is strongly associated with the kaǧi, a term that denotes the raven and northern crow. It is also the name by which the Hocągara know the Menominee.

On account of his vision, a great Menominee (Kaǧi) chief commanded that all manner of supplies be assembled at a white sand beach on Lake Michigan. And when all this had been done and set in order, as the sun reached its zenith the vision came to life: in the pure blue sky of the eastern horizon a single dark cloud began to form and move irresistibly towards them. It was a great flock of ravens (kaǧi), spirit birds with rainbow plumage of iridescent colors. The instant that the first of these landed, he materialized into a naked, kneeling man. The Menominee chief said to his people, "Give this man clothing, for he is a chief." And the others landed in like fashion, and were given great hospitality. They were the Hocąk nation, and that is how they came to Red Banks.

Red Banks (Wisconsin) is the traditional homeland of the Hocąk Nation. It is situated on Green Bay, which the Hocągara called Te-rok, the "Within Lake". Lake Michigan as a whole was called Te-šišik, "Bad Lake", which may well have led the Algonquian peoples round about Lake Winnebago to call them "the people of the Bad Waters", or Winnibégo in Menominee.

Red Horn

The legend of Red Horn (also known as 'He Who Wears Human Heads as Earrings') is found in the oral traditions of the Pawnee (?), Ioway, and Ho-Chunk people (recorded by anthropologist Paul Radin around 1900). The saga of Red Horn depicts his adventure with Turtle and Storms-As-He-Walks (a thunderbird) who fight a race of red haired giants that have been killing Red Horn's people. Red Horn eventually took one of the giant women as a wife. Red Horn has been identified by archaeologists as one of the major mythic figures in Mississipian art, with numerous representations on Southeastern Ceremonial Complex artifacts. The mythic cycle of Red Horn and his sons has certain analogies with the Hero Twins mythic cycle of Mesoamerica.

Notes and References

Wikipedia Links

• Native American mythology
• Ho-Chunk
• Winnebago language
• Winnebago War
• Doty Island
• Native American tribes in Nebraska

External links

• Ho-Chunk Nation web site
• The Encyclopedia of Hotcâk (Winnebago) Mythology
• Catholic Encyclopedia entry
• Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
• Paul Radin's Winnebago Notebooks at the American Philosophical Library