Pocahontas’s Cartwheels

Last updated: May 20, 2020

A completely off-topic and brief Fun Fact today, as a reminder that the stories of Pocahontas, John Smith, and Jamestown that have entered American mythology are extremely massaged and that the truth was more interesting and complex. Among other things, as hopefully many people know by now, Pocahontas and Smith did not have any sort of romantic relationship; she was an irreverent, playful little prepubescent girl when he knew her. For example:

DID YOU KNOW: That a young Pocahontas would cartwheel naked around Jamestown with all the English boys?:

The better ſort of women̄ cover them (for the moſt parte) all over w^th ſkyn̄ mantells, fynely dreſt, ſhagged, & frindged at the ſkirt, carved and coulored, w^th ſome pretty worke or the proportion̄ of beaſts, fowle, tortoyſes, or other ſuch like Imagery as ſhall beſt pleaſe or expreſſe the fancy of the wearer, their younger women̄ goe not ſhadowed amongeſt their owne company vntill they be nigh eleaven̄ or twelue returnes of the Leafe (for ſo they accompt and bring about the yeare) calling the fall of the leafe Taquitock) nor are they much aſhamed thereof, and therefore would the before remembred Pochohuntas, a well featured but wanton young girle Powhatans Daughter, ſometymes reſorting to o^ur Fort, of the age then of 11. or 12. years, gett the boyes forth with her into the markett place and make them wheele, fallnig [sic] on their handes turning their heeles vpwardes, whome ſhe would follow, and wheele ſo her ſelf naked as ſhe was all the Fort over . . .

—Strachey, The First Decade Conteyning the Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania, Caput 5, 1612: Princeton MS

The last portion of Pocahontas’s very short life is pretty depressing, and it’s nice that we have a few goofy snapshots from her younger, more carefree days.

Sources Used

• Strachey, William (1612). The First Decade Conteyning the Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania. With illustrations by Theodor de Bry and a copy of John Smith’s 1612 map of Virginia. Ms., Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Manuscripts Division, C0199 (no. 1416).
• Strachey, William (1953 [1612]). The Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania, eds. Louis B. Wright and Virginia Freund. London: Hakluyt Society.

A Eulogy for Two Ma’iinganag

Last updated: March 27, 2021.

Imaa gaye a’aw ma’iingan—gii-minwenimaawan miinawaa ezhichigeyaang. Gaye miinawaa gidaa-booni’aag gakina ingiw ma’iinganag. Niinawind omaa anishinaabewin, minwenimaawi wa’aw ma’iingan. Abinoojiinyag apane niwiindamawaag gaye wiinawaa, “Booni’ a’aw ma’iingan. Mii a’aw gidoodem. Booni’ maanoo da-babaa-ayaa omaa.” Mii o’ow gagwejiminaan gaye miinawaa omaa. Booni’ a’aw ma’iingan, ma’iinganag omaa.

And in regard to the wolf there—he has been admired in what we do. And you should also leave all of the wolves alone. And for us here, in the Indian way, this wolf is admired. And I always tell the children, “Leave the wolf alone. He’s your kin. Leave him alone. Let him roam freely here.” This is also what I am asking of you here. Leave the wolf alone, the wolves here.

—George Fairbanks, Oshkaabewis Native Journal vol. 8^[1]

In late November, the Yellowstone National Park wolf known by her call-sign of 926F was killed by a hunter—“legally harvested outside the park,” as the terminology goes. She was seven years old, not too shabby. Wolves live a rough life, and the average lifespan for one in the wild is about 4-6 years, though they can live close to 20 in captivity, where they get the benefit of guaranteed meals, vet care when they’re sick or injured, and not having to hunt animals that are many times larger than them and can easily kill them with a single kick. She had been the dominant breeding female of the Lamar Canyon Pack for many years,^[2] first with her mate 925M, then later with other males from the Prospect Peak Pack who had invaded and killed 925M, and finally, after those males died from various causes, with a male who had dispersed from the Beartooth Pack outside the park.

Lewis and Clark’s Game of Telephone

Last updated: November 1, 2020

Just a small update today, to relay an amusing moment during Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory.

While there were probably a few regional lingua francas in the Americas pre-contact, and while a number of Indians were likely multilingual—especially in cases involving outgroup marriage, close trading and/or military alliances, or adopted war captives—there was a huge variety of languages and communicating with people from more distant groups was probably difficult.

At one point in Lewis and Clark’s expedition, they came upon the “Tushepaw” (Montana Salish) people. In order to communicate with them Clark had to use (quoted in Silverstein 1996:118, brackets in original):

a boy a snake (Soshonee) by birth who had been taken prisoner by some northern band retaken by the Tushepaws whose language he had acquired. I spoke in English to Labieche . . . — he translated it to Chaboneau in French — he to his wife [Sacagawea] in Minnetarée [Hidatsa] — she in Shoshoné to the boy — the boy in Tushepaw to that nation.

Anyway, that must have been fun.

Sources Used

(“HNAI” = Handbook of North American Indians, series ed. William C. Sturtevant)

• Silverstein, Michael (1996). “Dynamics of Linguistic Contact.” In Languages, ed. Ives Goddard, pp. 117-136. HNAI vol. 17. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

Ojibwe Loan Words in English

Last updated: March 2, 2024

Those who encountered the Ojibwa Indians found their dialect so deeply impenetrable that they couldn’t even agree on the tribe’s name. Some said Ojibwa, others Chippewa. By whatever name, the tribe employed consonant clusters of such a confounding density—mtik, pskikye, kchimkwa, to name but three—as to convince the new colonists to leave their tongue in peace.

—Bryson, Made in America, pg. 24

Sadly, as is the case throughout the book just quoted, Bill Bryson is a fool who does not know what he’s talking about, and is content merely with sounding erudite and witty, rather than conveying facts to his readers.^[1] But here, we’re all about facts!

The truth is, English has a decent number of loanwords from Algonquian languages, including some from Ojibwe, some more obscure than others. I’ve left off some extremely obscure or obsolete ones. You’ll notice most of them are terms for animals.

Ojibwe Names for Domestic Animals

Last updated: November 27, 2023

Precontact Anishinaabe people had only one significant domestic animal, dogs, which were kept as pets and companions, used as draft animals, and sometimes sacrificed and/or eaten for certain particularly important ceremonies or to propitiate certain gods/spirits. Except for caribou (reindeer), which were never domesticated in North America, the Great Lakes region otherwise lacked any other suitable large domesticable animal.^[1]

With the arrival of Europeans, however, the Anishinaabeg were of course exposed to many new and unfamiliar domesticates. This post will look at the names of each animal in various Ojibwe dialects. As might be expected, since these represented unfamiliar concepts and Ojibwe evinces a general preference to create new vocabulary based on existing roots rather than directly borrow foreign words, there is often a great deal of dialectal variation in these names.