(c 1920 Sioux Biloxi Language)
Images: Old-fashioned vacation postcards for New Orleans. The first is inverted in color because most of my recent posts are on Algonquian languages. This makes a nice contrast and sets the scene with sizable images of a plant and an animal.
From page 37 of the 1920 "Dictionary and Texts of Biloxi and Ofo Languages". I chose this one at random because it starts out with very gross human trophy practices and involves the turkey, the Thanksgiving bird. I don't think there are any explanations accompanying these myths yet I will try some quick explanation. But don't expect it to be correct.
As is typical for most Native American languages except those with more speakers or more good fortune, this one book seems to comprise the entire corpus of the language. Klamath-Modoc is similar, there's only a few books which documented it before it died.
Another disappointing thing about Native American languages is that while their texts often include myth-like tales, their grammars often do not pull from these exciting myths but rather from the most mundane of sentences, as if the language scientist involved had no sense of perspective or conception of human heritage whatsoever. This is an irony of the modern era and its language science: The high regard of the mundane over the mythic. Valentine's Reference Grammar of Ojibwe is like this, as were the SIL Northern Uto-Aztecan languages I once had. The language scientist creates a documentation of the language for all time ... it's a pity his own education lacks the insight to prize the mythic, the fairy tale, the sense of history and prehistory and super-real which they communicate. For decades now, it has been a source of frustration to me to study from Valentine's grammar and find the sample sentences of the most mundane subject matter. What is the purpose of language and free time if not to study ancient wisdom? Of mundane interaction, have we not enough, that we would open a book for more?
Then again, making a grammar is a huge task and however the grammarian is comfortable, that's worth considering. No one drives a car while standing, at least not for very long. Even if they would like to.
This text is free online:
A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages
By James Owen Dorsey, John Reed Swanton
https://books.google.com/books?id=TjwgxkXNp_cC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=%22The+Wild+Turkey+was+killing+very+many+human+beings.%22&source=bl&ots=Twd0YVyTma&sig=ilYC_JijpqpT3tGvhxuGLbIKh0I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwia2Zbz-LXcAhXM6YMKHXweAPUQ6AEwAXoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Wild%20Turkey%20was%20killing%20very%20many%20human%20beings.%22&f=false
It has recently been revised and expanded by a PhD but you have to pay for that one:
http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/david-kaufman/biloxi-english-dictionary-second-edition/paperback/product-22203482.html
Gross "human trophy" practices seem irrelevant and troubling today yet are crucial for Hieroglyphic Studies because back then, they did these sort of things with the bodies of defeated enemies. Notably, the Ancient Mayan hieroglyph for SHIELD has variants depicting tanned enemies' faces and perhaps Ancient Egyptian EAR depicts a deer's ear because it was used as something like a good luck charm, like a lucky rabbit's foot.
## Prose English:
<< The Wild Turkey was killing very many human beings. He took their scalps and wore their hair as a necklace. Therefore the turkey has a tuft of hair at the present day. He took off the fingernails of the people and strung them on sinew, wrapping the strings of nails around his legs. Consequently, a turkey's legs are now covered with ridges just above the feet.
The people could find no way to kill the Wild Turkey because he ran so fast; therefore they set the Dog on him. And the Dog did not have to run very fare before he caught the Wild Turkey and killed him. Then men made a dinner in honor of the dog. They told him that he should be eating the very best kinds of food. But they had there all kinds of food. Then the dog said, "I am going to eat the food which others leave." And the Dog took some mush which was there, went aside, sat down and spent some time in eating it. Therefore dogs do not eat the best kinds of food but those which are regarded as inferior, or what is left. >>
## Quick Explanation of Myth:
This story may explain or discuss why some animals are eaten more often than others. Here the wild turkey seems to be associated with "rebel gods", like Seth in Ancient Egyptian Mythology or Wolf Wind (Windigo) in Algonquian Mythology. Dogs are held in very high esteem in the Iranian Avestan, which is typical for domesticated animals. Of which the Native Americans had few outside of the Incan llamas and guinea pigs.
In my mind, "human trophy" practices in ancient and historic peoples are related to cannibalism because they treat humans like animals. However, it's important to note that people who do things like this don't see it this way and see this as an honorable or suitable way of treating dead bodies. So anthropology is unpleasant sometimes but useful in its place. Like if you want to make sense of old Indian myths or the oldest writings of humanity or something. Or if you plan on taking a vacation or relocation to North Korea or rural China. They may still do this in rural Wiconsin or Montana for all I know. Or maybe not, maybe this sort of thinking is a thing of the distant past.
To type up the Biloxi, I only typed the letters and skipped the ' and diacritics. This made typing faster and non-letter phonemes or phoneme parts usually don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
## Prose English with Glossed New Orleans Sioux Biloxi:
( Images: These small pictures of things are taken from Ojibwe and Sioux pictographs (symbols) as presented in William Tomkin's common and short book on Indian Sign Language and Pictographs. These have been available online from this website since at least 2006, when I first began studying Ojibwe. )
http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/native/sign/pictographs.htm
<< The Wild Turkey was killing very many human beings.
turkey MANI that running one ANDE-YAN men (people) ANYA was killing many of them as he ran TCAXTIYE--ANDE did ONXA.
He took their scalps and wore their hair as a necklace.
therefore EKE--ONNIDI people ANYA hair-him ANAHIN-KAN worse as a necklace NANPUNI.
Therefore the turkey has a tuft of hair at the present day.
was HANDE because ONNIDI therefore EKEONNI he has hair UNNAHONI.
He took off the fingernails of the people
and strung them on sinew,
wrapping the strings of nails around his legs.
people ANYA fingernails--them TCA-UXE--K strung DASI leg-the YUKPE-YAN was wrapping around ADU--ANDE.
(That is so horrible.)
Consequently, a turkey's legs are now covered with ridges just above the feet.
because ONNIDI leg YUKPE striped KUDEXYE.
The people could find no way to kill the Wild Turkey
because he ran so fast.
people ANYA how to do TCIDIKON they kill it TETU for HI NIKIXTI not at all TANHI-XTI.
Therefore they set the Dog on him.
as KAN dog TCUNKI they set [sent] him on it AKUTITANTU
And the Dog did not have to run very far
when KAN he ran NOXE very short ATCKAXTI with force KIDE
before he caught the Wild Turkey and killed him.
took it DUSI killed it TEYE turkey MANK dead TE when KAN.
Then men made a dinner in honor of the dog.
food-him ADUTI-K they made it for him KIKONTU people the he ANYADI dog TCUNKI they made it for him KIKONTU.
They told him that he should be eating
the very best kinds of food.
food ADUTI very good him PIXTI-K be eating it DUTI--ANDA that he should HI they said to him KIYETU
But they had there all kinds of food.
but XENI food ADUTI all kinds HENANIXTI were MANKI.
Then the dog said,
"I am going to eat the food which others leave."
and then EKEKAN,
" food ADUTI lesser-extra KU-DANIXTI i eat it NDUTI i continue NKANDA shall HE,"
said that HEDI dog TCUNKI.
And the Dog took some mush which was there, went aside,
sat down and spent some time in eating it.
and then EKEHAN mush SUNNIHONNI sitting NE him KAN he took DUSI he went aside MANTK--DE sat down XEHE was eating it DUTI--HANDE did ONNI.
Therefore dogs do not eat the best kinds of food
but those which are regarded as inferior, or what is left. >>
that is why EKEDI food-him ADUTI-K not the best - him KUDANI-K he eats DUTI habitually XYA.
they say it ETU regularly XA. (So they say.)
[[ Such phrases as "So they say." in traditional accounts like this are more idiomatic than literal and go to mark such accounts for what they are. ]]
Image: This picture is from their website. It's of a recent powwow.
https://www.tunicabiloxi.org/23rd-annual-tunica-biloxi-pow-wow-brings-family-fun-and-tradition-to-avoyelles-parish/
[[ The original title of the myth is "How the Dog Delivered Men". 1920. Now, I think the author of this work was yet another Anglican priest, like Roger Williams or John Eliot. I take some issue with the title, however, because what the scholar should seek to do is not present the texts as he would but as the people in question would. This title is either reverent (James Owen Dorsey) or irreverent (John R Swanton) but either way is not how I would title the myth or fairy tale. ]]
## More on "New Orleans" Sioux Biloxi
The Sioux Language Family is one of the major Native American language families. Here is a map of them. I don't know how similar they are all to eachother. All the Algonquian languages are very similar to eachother, like a branch in Indo-European. Maybe the Sioux languages are likewise, I don't know.
Kaufman 2015, under DUTI "he eats":
I eat / you eat / he eats // we eat / you guys eat / they eat
ADUTI, IDUTI, DUIT // ADUXTU, IDUXTU, DUXTU
"Often accompanied by the prefix a- "something"."
Me: Cf. food ADUTI. Now, ADUTI "I eat" is actually A,DUTI whereas "food" is ADUTI. So there you go.
This is like how Algonquian, Iroquois, and Caddoan verbs conjugate. So Ruhlen's idea that they're all related is at least not totally removed from the truth. Though all or almost all amateurs and professionals don't think languages can be related at that time depth. His work is good for mnemonics and polyglot language-learning, at least.
Sioux languages were present at Jamestown in the surround Powhatan Empire. These do not seem well-documented, though.
So it's like inviting relatives to Thanksgiving. Relatives from New Orleans!
1600s Massachusett "food" is also derived from "eat" : MEECH > MEECHUMICKS, something like that. But English "food" is also, seemingly related to "feed".
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