The first word is used today for both spotted and striped skunks. The second word is given in Kroeber (1916).
F. V. Hayden’s 1863 report gives a second word, <na-ku-ha>, for skunk as well. This looks like nookuxoo or nook(x)ouhu’, meaning ‘white skunk.’ He says that both this and xoo refer to the ‘spotted-backed polecat,’ but perhaps in former times there was a different word for spotted (as opposed to striped) skunks.
Skunks are linked to traditional medicinal practice. Skunk oil (from the scent glands) is used to treat earaches, for example: it is dropped into the ear, and then sometimes a warm rock or similar heat source is held close to the ear. Medicine men also made medicine bags out of skunk skins. The spraying of the skunk was linked in Arapaho thought to the spitting of medicines by the doctor onto the patient. There is a story (Traditions of the Arapaho, #98 - “The Bear and the Skunk”) which says that the bear represents the approach of the disease, while the skunk represents the medicine man. The bear and the skunk met on a road, and fought over who would possess it. The skunk sprays the bear, chasing him away, and takes possession of the road. The stripe on the skunk’s back represents that road - possessed by the powers of healing rather than illness.
The treatment for getting sprayed by a skunk, especially in the face and eyes, was to get a pair of stinky, old mocassins and look into them with the eyes wide open. The odor was said to cleanse the eyes.