I can go along with any of the designation which include a "Saw" in the name. But the etymology of the words Arkansawyer, or Arkansawian has to come from the need to identify "properly" a Native of the State of Arkansas.

The fact that the Arkansass Legislature need to define the pronunciation of the name of the state as AR-kan-SAW in 1881 rather than AR-Kansas would indicate that someone was trying to change that pronunciation then and that it had become some what of a problem. Possibly because of the influence of Kansas Troops in the state during the War. Remember one of our Governors during that post war period (Powell Clayton) had commanded the 5th Kansas Cavalry during the War.

Yet now educated people have fallen back to using the AR-Kansan designation. It would seem that we have no pride in having an individual state identity and would rather be Kansians than to be ARkansawyers because that sounds "too uneducated backwoods, barefoot hill billy, redneck".