Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24

NJ los M Whit late Ut. y. Il. RlSSS.
\ |E&lllV 1t is uUarto Of Gi5
~[~ = XIV pages, printcd uni-
N--sZc.-NNS$ r. for:aly with the pub
- locations Of the Unit
-e----.e, ed States geological
survey, under whose
auspices the work . D.
pears The manuscript mas been in the
hahis Of the geological surv..y for re-,
years. since the death of the ourbo,. s,a
was edited for publication by Or. !. owen
dorsey OF the bureau of cthncIocv The
WORK Is or great historical value. a..I fro-,
us practical Importance 1t the present
ti,I.e IN the effort 20 civilize the g-r,at gioux
hatoA. whose numbers and war!.!lp churcc-
Ter nave made them the most formula blo
Vi an the lntIan tribes in this country.
AS MaJ- FoWcN remarks in the predatory
NUE. TINS dictionary, together with Other
'"dteiiaIs published. largely by the same
a"'iior' VIII place the SiOuan lar-,,la~ .s
oi record more thoroughly than those OF
any otner family in this C3ua.ry.
me earliest dictionary of the Dakota
oDah-ho-tahj was that which IIenre,in.
'he franciscan, made in 1i>J The iaiti;u
word of that Little WORK the Fre!.cl try
eier LaI gained while in n Sioux carnp nv
running short distance from the fir. then
back again. In this way he learned the
Dakota verb in-yan-ha, to run. He saws
In his narrative: when once I had .o1 The
word tahetchiaben Oa-ku-ca -za-ya-t:D, which
signifies in their language how call v.u
thiS: / beSan soon. u be able to talk of
sucn things as are NEST familiar" Can't
John Carver whose historic little cave On
the banks of the Mississippi al So Pau
curious travellers now and then visit in
l.. rRprN tod
words After MIN Alexander Iienry in mis-
Journal OF journey across Minnesota ard
the northwest to the Pacific in 1883 Gives a
list of 300 Assinaboine words. evidently
Slouan in derivation. Vocabularies were
made by Henry of several Indian dja-
lects, which. in manuscript male By one
or his friends, are preserved in the library
of parliament at Ottawa. Canada They
were manifestly intended Cor use bv fur
traders and by the government in rn;.king
treaties with the Indians. Officers OF the
United States army stationed a Fort Smell
ing made from time to time extensive yo-
cabularies, embracing several hundred
words, chiefly nouns in common use as
names of things. All these attempts at a
written language for the Dakotas We're
without a knowledge of the principles of the
language and even without the simples
acquaintance with the rubin entary sounds
used or their representation in char
suited to simple Lines.
Probably no language has grown more in
so short a time than that of the Sioux
knowledge of words, 1t has been said can
not be more extensive than our knowledge
of things. The Indians in their simple, savage
life had a most primitive language, which
existed only in sound and without repre-
sentaton in written characters. 1t was
fifty years ago complete so far as their
mode of living at that time demanded Yet
they were a people who had no idea of
government, of king, OF science, medi-
cine law or similar things. They ha,! few
notions of abstract ideas. Our words for
time, space or color were wanting in their
tongue. The aboriginal character of the
Sioux language may be shown by their rude
expressions Tor domestic animals. They
called a sheep, little deer; a horse a
great dog; cat, dog wildcat. In many
respects 1T was a most picturesque tongue
Names of places were generally descriptive,
either of some physical or historical cir
cumStance. They had no family names and
all proper names were descriptive. Instead
of calling boy Jones or Smith, because a
thousand years ago his early ancestors
were very strong and good men or skillful
workers in iron, they gave him a distiuc-
tive name that always meant something
Ii a bluebird fitted by at the time of his
birth, he became Bluebird. Thus originated
such names Rain-in-the-fa Sitting
Bull, Iron Elk, Little Crow, Good Road
Long-Buffalo, Beautifully Bird, Burnt-Legs
Bit-Nose, Standing Soldier and similar APP
pellations.
The Dakota is a difficult language to
learn. Its spoken forms are full of clicks
and gutturals and nasalS. Its declensicns
are full of complexities. The verbs are De-
cularly difficult. They as formless as
our own English verb. yet are far more
flexible and eXpressive-capable of finer
shades of meaning in describing modes of
action in great variety. The pronouns and
propositions occur in all parts of a SEN
Something OF the peculiar idiom of the
Dakota may be CLEANED from literal trans
lationS of the titles of familiar books that
have been translated into the language
For instance, the title of Joseph Renville's
first work is: Extracts from Genesis and
the Psalms, with the Third Chapter of
Proverbs and the Third Chapter of Daniel.
In the Dakota Language. Translated from
the French Bible by Joseph Renville Com
pared with other TRANSACTIONS by Thomas
S. Williamson Nj. d. Printed by the Ameri-
can Board" etc The literal translation
of this, as it appears In Dakota, is: Begin
ming at the Mysterious ne-Great what all
he made the or Genesis they-call-it and
song mysterious or Psalm they-call-it some
thing-written mysterious Frenchman his
that-from Rice-child OWilliamson talked
white these he-told and Grass Indian-man
doctor williamson he-wrote-it the that
is-it. Iron with (printed) they made it,"
etc.
Curious Forms Of ExpressfOn.
The title Of the Gospel of Mark in Da-
kota is: "Wotanin waxte Markus owal1in
dee. Maza on Kagapi, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ixta wayazan wi omalsa. 1899" The trans
lation Of this is: "News Good Mark write
the this-is-it. Metal with they make-it
Cincinnati. Ohio. Eyes-sore moon (March)
year 1890" The Dakota title of the Acts
of the Apostles literally rendered in English
is: Jesus going-from -place-to-place he
caused-them the they-acted in-the past
and Paul Some thing written he-made-it in
the-past: also John he-related-it fn-the-
past these those-are-they. Hs-country
(the Indians called DIR. Riggs His Coun-
try he-made-it-after-a-copy TRANSLATED }"
The following imprint. Printed by Crock
err & Brewster Boston," appears In Dakota
like this: MAN two one Croker they-call
and other Brewster they-call those metal
with they-make town one Boston they call
that at"
Thus it was that great difficulty was ex-
perienced in reducing the tongue to gram
NAUTICAL forms. The white men who as fur
traders, went among the Sioux and took to
themselves Dakota wives were. as a rule,
uneducated, and their use of the language
was never to be depended upon. They
spoke a vile jarson, essentially worse than
the unadulterated Dakota. In n measure,
the vocabulares collected by travellers and
officers omen to the same criti-