The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-08-06
ToMAHAwK TRULY BURIED.
Indians of the West Have Even
Dropped the Word from Their
Language.

of the northwest of the ways of the
white men in the matter of vocations
the English language is, perhaps, far
Their from being generally used by
them than ever before,
The statement is made by mission
aries and government agents that the
Indian languages are more generally
spoken and better developed to-day
than they were so years ago. This is
particularly true of the Sioux, which,
in two dialects, the Teton and the
Yankton, has been the means of com
munication for unnumbered years
among the Indians of the great plains
country on both sides of the Missouri
river.
The law of evolution works in the
Indian language just as it does in the
English. The older Indians employ
words and phrases that the later gen
erations do not use and do not seem
to understand, says the New York Sun.
The change has come about largely
through the influence of the mission
aries, who have taken the trouble to
learn the tongue, and have then en-
ployed their linguistic skill in system
atizing it. Grammar had very little
/ place in the old language of the Sioux,
but the missionary has brought order
to this part of it.
One noticeable change in the char
acter of the Indian language of to-day
is its comparative purity. In the old
/ days. when the tribes rOamed at will,
! each enriched the language of the 9TH
ers by picturesque phrases or words,
either through the exchange of greet
/ ings or the words wrung from the lips
of captive braves.
| The Indian exhibits the same quick
ness in grasping a new idiom or strik-
/ ing phrase as the white man, although
restricted necessarily to Indian
/ sources. 1t is a remarkable fact that
/ the slang of the English tongue finds
| little favor with the reds. although
| they are eager to seize upon anything
/ good in any other Indian tongue.
/ Their confinement to the bounds of the
reservations has had the effect of puri-
/ flying their Language in that there is
| little of the old mixture of other tribes
to be found.
All Indian language is spoken in gut
| tural, deep, throaty tones, with small
/ syllables and much use of novels.
/ Words of the Sioux sometimes mean
whole phrases of English. Take, for
instance, the old word -mah-pas-an-
ta-gil." which expresses a long SEN
/ tence in English.
1t means that the Indian has seen
! something silhouetted against the sky,
| after dusk has set in, and that he has
watched it until he could distinguish
the object by the red light of the after
! glow. Tenderfeet scarcely ever OBJ
serve this peculiar phenomenon of the
! plains, but old plainsmen have noticed
that always in the evening when dark
ness is gathering over the land there
is faint temperance of glowing red
light as if the sun were about to rise
again.
The Indians who are great at MOTTO
ing things understood this phenom-
enon and watched for it. When writ
ten the word would have "wa-yan-ka-
pi' added if the object had been seen
by more than one. The affix 'pi'' al
ways signifies the plural number.
The old Indian words wigwam and
tomahawk have no longer a place in
| the language of the reds. These and
many others are practically extinct.
They were, strictly speaking, words of
eastern tribes, and in some cases thew
were the inventions of trappers and
! plainsmen. The Sioux word for wig
wan is tepee, which has more essen
! TALLY Indian sound.
By prefiXing and affiXing, an Indian
word may be heightened out into
meanings that would require a whole
paragraph of English to fully trans
late. The language is very comprehen-
sive, and in its greater purity is more
poetical than formerly, shorn. as it
now is, of what corresponded to indian
slang
1t is losing a little in the way of be-
ing figurative, this being the result of
scientific application and systematiza-
| ton. The words and phrases still deal
mainly with the ordinary things of
the Indians simple life, and when the
realm of metaphysics is entered the
red man is at loss for words, save as
he can illustrate his meaning by the
use of common words of double signi.
| fication.