> Arkansas - said as Are-can-saw, why not spell it Arkansaw?

I heard something about this a couple of weeks ago. It came via
Native American and French. "Kansas" is almost coincidental,
being named also via Native American and French

Arkansas

The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto at the end of the 16th century. Arkansas is one
of several U.S. states formed from the territory purchased from
Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. The early Spanish
or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably
a phonetic spelling for the Illinois word for the Quapaw people,
who lived downriver from them

Kansas

It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, from the
French "Cansez", by explorer =C9tienne de Veniard, Sieur de
Bourgmont, and after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area

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