The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-03-27

Ii our last numberof the Pioneer, we
had Mr.. w. B. White, frozen, in short
parag graph; from which be soon Shaved
out-~~and was doing very weIl. The
Chronicle thisSweek, has got him frozen
again through half column solid.
.a4.sss EBueo,oo one .of aihes eeatsibutors nta,
the Pioneer, is very talented crazy sol
der ut Fort Smelling ri Chronicle. ii fg
If this were true, nothing then, but
tina. italicised word, disquahGes Educo'
for occupying the editorial chair of the
| Chronicle, vacant now ever since the
! departare..o Col. Hughes But the
fact is, Sergeant Lanman is a gentleman,
scholar and clear-headed nan
These qualities, the Chronicle cannot
appreciate. The Chronicle had better
confine itself to the narrow sphere of its
own capacity. 1t knows as little about
| talent, as bat knows of colors. a
| @ Barnum, Of the American Mu-
scum, has purchased that celebrated
Mexican blanket.-[ Chronicle.
And will make good speculation of
it, if he paid in "Saint Croix" bank
notes.
I e. A good dagrerreotypist is need
ed in Saint Paul; also an engraver.
We were at loss to understand why
the Chronicle was SO complimentary upon
that neat little cottage below the Min
nesota Outfit, +" until we found it was one
of the only class of houses in Saint
Paul, where flies Of the Chronicle are
found. ' i''
Customs and Language ofth Dakotas.
| We listen daily to the Sioux Ian
! guage: and most persons soon learn the
definition of few of their words. Their
dialect, so far as we can judge, is one
of the curiosities of our time, well wor-
thy of pathological research. In fact,
the Sioux nation here existing in primi-
tive Indian simplicity, with language,
customs, dress, superstitions, every
thing, we have reason to believe, I'M
changed from what they were at the dis
covery of this continent by Columbus
in 1892, and now within easy access to
the whole civilized world, by steamboat,
affords n rare opportunity to study and
observe primitive Indian character, such
as will nerer again be afforded, after the
lapse Of another year or two. Au al
most insuperable difficulty in the way OF
our acquiring a knowledge of the Da-
llota dialect is their want of an alpha
beta defect which ought to- be and
might be supplied. Intellectual at
tempts have been made, to write their
, language in our alphabet; but the Roman
: alphabet lacks characters to represent
their gutturals, Iabials, and indeseriba-
bies, embracing the whole gamut OF
queer noises, from the grunting of a
f hog. to the clucking of hen. The Da-
kota tongue however, affords some strlk-
, ing analogies to the languages of the
East; and if it were subjected to the
3 analysis of thorough, pathological in
: yestigation and comparison, might throw
e more light upon the origin Of these tribes
J and the link which connects them with
E the races Of the old world, than all the
relics and mounds and implements ioune
t buried in them; especially as these rel
e les may have belonged to different
r race; whereas the language now spo
ken by living tribes, affords threat
: which if followed, must lead back
!, through misty centuries, to the forks o
!. the Red and the White races.
: In the Dakota language, will be foune
!, beautiful, philosophical simplicity
= which will delight the learner. Its verbs
" and nouns which are merely arbitrary
are few-the rest are slight variation
= from these few, which are descriptive
Thus, the Sioux has an arbitrary noul
i signiiyiug i;qnid, or water, which is thu
7 generic representative of liquids. b,
: slight affix or prefix to this noun wa
= ter, descriptive of some peculiarly o
:. the liquid described, he makes. out |
II name for any sort of liquid-for arden
spirits of all sorts-for acid or alkaline
liquids--in fact he is not limited, but cal
apply this descriptive noun to any liqui'
e he becomes acquainted with, by usin!
b an affix or prefix. descriptive Of It's mos
e dtStihcttre Tudtiy. 30 WIN the use OF
It noun signifying quadrmped, he con
triyes to describe all sorts of quadru
: peds, either as large, or small, or swift
n or long-eared, or fne-furred. Cano
. is the generic noun for whole famil
= of words. Therefore prefix Of tn
+ descriptive word fre-makes it fire
! canoe. This descriptive character Q
the language, renders it eminently pc
o etc; and in our own time, we have oh
: served that writer's in the English Ian
IS guage, who are poets, are frequent.
9 tempted to make descriptive compound
of this sort, which are often used wit
great effect. Willis is one of thes
a writer's; and he contrives to nterweav
a in his prose more poetry, than most 9th
q er writer's do in their verse
e But we commenced this article, merel
as preface to a notice of an elaborat
: Lexicon Of the Sioux language, I'm man