Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-05-01
A PIONEERS CHAT.
ne TALKS OF THE MYSTERIES ne
THE INDIANS SIGN LANGUAGE

|
'"e Correct Meaning OF sit,i,o p..,..
s'o" Name-A Translation of ~.
Indian Name for Goa-T,. Cit,
Agnostic. "'
o,a .u', Inward II. Allison, in his bucI,sli,
oi'Ihes ana his old, white, lon rim at r.
. Vi 'he most interesting men aver
~ was he who, single handed
UU,o"Sho ABOUT the surrender If SINH
- "i'er the massacre of Gen. Cneter
~, MS troops and the story of this ox.
h' 6aNe MI. Allison a national name
e, a..er al, That was only one of his
Poi's anu by no means the most in.
eies'ihg OF them. He IL an ideal ..Jpd;.n
nsn,er' out Is very far from that mr.
uoular ana false ideal set up by the choon
penny ,t-uhers who never saw a plain or
an indian, but who write miserable str,p
ABOUT them both by the mile. S'N'i
MI Allison was born in Micbig.n 4,
io4', ana spent the first fifteen vears -,
ms NE on his fathers farm T,ban
enough yet so young, he passed the exoni'
nation standing as high as. 9D and was mn.
circulated at Ann Arbor UNIVERSITY Soon
AFTER this he enlisted for the war ont -
"hicii nc came, after three wears at tho
aye Oh ~, lifted, as the army is likely tn
LII one OF his years, for something mora
active and exciting than the old farm life
III Michigan. In 1866 he accordinojv
| went west and became a government die.
patch bearer. Ever since that time ha
| mas lived upon the plains, suffered ita
hardshlps, learned its lessons and now be
las come out, after twenty-five wears of
1t, an Intelligent gentleman, with a broad
understanding, not only of the Indians
.heir language and their characteristics
put OF 1.-The Indian question: in aT ;ts
phases, from that viewed by the states
man TO that imagined by the ambitions
youngster who sticks his mothers bread
khile Ill his belt and starts to exterrnjnate
the race OF red men.
THE INDIANS SIGN LANGUAGE.
MI Allison has not merely learned the
sioux language; lie has mastered If. lie
speaks dozen Or more lingos, or dialects
put he says the Sioux is the language Of
me American Indian, and that of the 300
ooo Indians in all the country the Sioux
nation comprises one sixth. "rhere 10 ),
said he, 'only one language that is en-
ployed by all our western Indians. 1t ia
the sign language" Then Mr.. Allison
gave Inc an example of this "tonpue -
An Indian is hungry! He motions with
one hand toward his open mouth as if he
were throwing food into it. and then
makes negative gesture away from his
mouth. The translation literally is: 81
have eaten-not,n OF course. if he has
not eaten he is hungry. If he is very
hungry the gesture toward his mouth is
greater in eXtent-that is, he motions to.
ward his mouth and continues the gesture
clear along down to his stomach-he is
empty all the way down, so to speak.
Now he wants to say he has looked for
game! This is said by pointing his two
nrst fingers away from his eyes, the back
OF his hand being in front of his nose. If
he wants to say he had to look long for |
the game he points in several directions |
ana Tor some time with these Ginger
eyes,
10 tell of mounting his pony and rid |
ing away, he straddled two fingers of one |
hand over the foretinger of the other. and |
makes Il galloping motion with the hands. |
10 say that he levels his gun at the game,
he holds his arms as if holding a gun. |
Shaping one palm upon the other means |
that he fired the gun, and siapping the |
back OF one hand on the palm of the other
means that he brought down the game.
Ii he missed the mark he makes the same
gesture, but adds the negative flourish 10
the brought down the game-not."
80 he goes through everything he has to
say and Mr.. Allison tells me that every
Indian in the west knows this language
AN ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION.
BY the way, correcting some wrong I'M
presslons, Mr.. Allison said; Most people
think Sitting Bull means a bull in a Sit
ting posture Nothing could give more
erroneous impression of the meaning of
his name. His Sioux name is Tia tan ka-
yo-tanka. 'Ta-tan-ka' means a buffalo
bull, the king of beasts, and i-yo-tan-ka'
means literally to sit down upon-that is,
to take possession Of. An Indian would
say that Cen Sherman marched through
Georgia and sat down upon Savannah
conquered the city. So, Sitting Bull is
he conqueror of the king of beasts, or, in
'ther words. the king of kings
Speaking of mistranslations,n con-
nued Mr.. Allison, people talk about
he Indian God rs the great spirit A
rue translation gives much better I'M
lerstanding of the Indians idea of God.
The Sioux word for spirit is 'nagi'
hade or shadow. Wa is Sioux prefix
,cuclttl, anu gives " whatever IL pTeceueS
general or universal meaning Wa
lagi' means spirit in general, just rs man
means to us men i'll general. Pr is a
,lural suffiX. Wa nagi pi' means spirits
Il general, and is a term frequently used
n the devotional exercises of Indians.
But the Sioux word for God is quite an
'ther thing. 1t is Wa-kan- tan ka.
Kan means mystery, that which is I'M
movable. Wa as have said signifies
he universal. Tan ka' means great.
he word for God is literally, then, the
.reat, universal mystery, unknowable by
nybody. The Sioux, you see, is pro-
essed agnostic."
Mr.. Allison hell the position of dis
atch bearer for some time and then be-
anne mail carrier, riding ON horseback
nd taking the mails on pack mule from
Id Fort Rice, in Dakota, for hundreds of
niles in all directions, through country
warming with hostile Indians. He al
ways had with him an escort of Indians
friendly to him, but they had many q
attic with the hostiles during the three
ears,that he continued in this service. 1T
Tas hard to 90 more than 300 yards out
Idle the fort palisade," said he, without
aving an arrow shot at you. willis B.
hawkins in Chicago Times.
The Game OF War.
"Eriegspier' the game OF wary is be-
oming almost rs popular among British