The Elkdog Men

New Tlingit encyclopedia baffling to scholars, speakers | KCAW

The Hlingit Word Encyclopedia is the second of nine volumes planned by Lambert. Her first work, a dictionary of Maori, was published a few years ago.

Lambert was born in New Zealand, but grew up in Samoa, where she developed an aptitude for language. Lambert turned her attention to Tlingit when she acquired a copy of a book by the late 19th/early 20th century ethnographer J. R. Swanton.

“I think often I’m led spiritually, and I don’t make my decisions with the full knowledge of the situation.”

You can read through it on Google Books and observe the crazy for yourself.

“ The book Julie of the Wolves, was printed in 1972 and it won a Newberry Award in 1973. It is often listed as one of the Battle of the Books through out the nation. The book has the thirteen year old Inupiaq girl, named Miyax, trekking from Barrow to Pt. Hope in order to catch the ship called the “North Star.” The Inupiaq alphabet does not have the letter “x” so Miyax is definitely not an Inupiaq name. I wondered why she bothered to walk to Pt. Hope to catch the North Star when the ship also goes to Barrow. […] During this trek, Miyax began to starve. She ate lemmings, which was very misleading, as Inupiaq people do not eat lemmings. However, she feasted on eighty lemmings. She didn’t start snaring birds until she was quite close to Pt. Hope. She befriended the wolves who eventually gave her their “cuds” like they give their young until they are old enough to eat meat. She doesn’t begin snaring ptarmigan until the very end of her journey and never fishes in the numerous lakes and rivers. Once she was able to take food away from the wolverine with the use of antlers for protection. This is inaccurate information, as wolverines are quite strong and will not permit any animal, much less a young girl, from taking their food away. They are known to hunt down animals much larger than themselves. Nevertheless, Miyax was able to do it.

—

Martha Stackhouse, Honoring Alaska’s Indigenous Literature

I loved this book as a kid and I wish I’d been able to read articles like this afterward. I realise that Stackhouse’s point is not the dearth of books available to middle-class white kids (lol) but it’s sad that kids of all cultures get fed so much bullshit in school libraries, even Newberry Award-winning bullshit. (I did know even at the time that there was something fishy about that “Miyax” name—the hell?)

Because c’mon, I think it’s safe to say that every schoolchild would love to learn more about their actual chances in a fight with a wolverine.

“A Dictionary of the Cree Language, as Spoken by the Indians of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Territories, compiled by the Reverend Edwin Arthur Watkins, missionary of the Church Missionary Society.”

Should win for most redundant ecclesiastical title.

Looking at lists of words in another language makes the brain generate vague narratives to go with them—I always associate the first declension nouns in Latin with the nebulous story in my head about the poet (poeta) and the rose (rosa) and the girl (puella) and the farmer (agricola), the first words taught in the Wheelock textbook. Languages like Cree suggest more detailed stories from the dictionary definitions:

A place where sand drifts into the eyes. The wind comes from there. He is lean, he is starving, he is skin and bone. I wonder if he did it. He confesses it to him. It serves him right, it’s his own fault. He kills him easily. He buries him under the snow. He is alone with his family. It snows into the tent. Red foxes are numerous. A tree on which a deer has rubbed his horns. He goes backwards and forwards, he retraces his steps over and over again. He is secretly listening. It is doubtful what it is. What is it, I wonder? I do not know what it is. They differ in opinion. He courts her, or she courts him. She makes a petticoat out of it. The flesh of the thigh. He feels it carefully. Low, low down, below. They dance together. Carefully, gently, gradually, slowly. Just so, that very place, there. She pretends to be asleep. He sleeps with his shoes on.

It is Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend! For people in a hurry, here are some bison eating pumpkins. For those with more time on their hands, I have a longer post on the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address in my repository of stuff that is tl;dr for tumblr.

Akwekon enhskat tsi entitewahwe’nonni’ ne onkwa’nikònra, tanon tenyethinonhweraton’ ne Onkwehson’a ne’ akwekon skennen akenhake’. Etho niyohtonhak ne onkwa’nikònra.

We will all join together in our minds, and we will give thanks to the People for their continued peace. So our minds will continue to be.

Lakota words

aca’hsu, v. To form ice on something in little drops, as on trees, grass, etc.

hia’kigle, v. To set the teeth firmly, as a dying person does.

hena’gi, n. The shadow of a hill.

ica’konta, v. To cut a groove in, as one branch resting on another will do when swayed by the wind.

iyu’s’o, v. When a man rides through water and gets wet in spite of lifting his legs.

kable’blesic’iya, v. refl. To rest one’s mind by walking around after hard work.

opu’hli, v. To stuff anything into, as an old coat into a broken window.

wica’natasloka, n. A dry human skull.

wo’econla, v. To consider something hard work but it is not.

(listed in Ian Frazier’s On the Rez)

I bring you only the best obscurities

I know what you’re thinking. How many times have you been playing NES on the Navajo reservation and you wanted to talk about Dr. Mario in the native language, but you just didn’t know the correct term?

“Azee’ handéhé This phrase literally means, “falling medicine.” My grandma and her older sister are the only people who use this word. Both of their grandchildren taught them how to play the original NES system. This is their favorite game, along with Tetris. Examples: Shimásání dóó bádí azee’ handéhé yee naanée eh. My grandma and her older sister play Dr. Mario quite frequently.”

Lots of other interesting words and phrases too.