To the editor:

On June 11, there was an article in Scene with the headline “Waist-deep in music.”

This article referred to “a guy at the Kansas Biological Survey” as saying that what Wakarusa really meant in Indian terms was “Ass-deep.”

I believe this to be incorrect. Here is why. I worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service for many years before retiring. During that period, the Wakarusa watershed was developed by the Soil Conservation Service. I worked with that program from its beginning to its completion.

One of my responsibilities in working with this watershed program was to prepare public information. Much of the sources came from a history book on Kansas, which provided quite a history of the Wakarusa River. This referred to the American Indian association in the Wakarusa area. This history gave the American Indian definition of Wakarusa as “sea of weeds,” which I believe to be correct.

I have heard the meaning of Wakarusa referred to in the paper. I am sure it is an old saying that who knows where it was derived from.

Richard A. Comer,

Lawrence