While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
To an infant a name is given in the family, by any relative, maternal or
paternal.70 White Moon (R. NichaGaiyu') does not know the
relative who gave him this name. The infant name may continue in use or it may
be supplanted by a later name, perhaps the name of the being acquired as a
guardian spirit, as in the case of Nvhi', Horned-hoot-owl or, probably, of
Moon-head, or by a name given quite as a nickname, as in the case of
K'akitsaiyet', Chewed-up or Ba'tshush, Tail-cut-off, who was in boyhood attacked
by a bear; of Hina'kahdi, Snow-chief, from his snow white hair; or of White
Moon's father who is called Tsa'banusha'a, Mr. Blue, from his skill in painting.71
His father's infant name White Moon does not know. The infant name may be itself
of the nature of a nickname, as, for example, in the case of GandiGUDiD (R.),
Little-black-head, so named because when he was little his hair was very black,
presumably at birth, or in the case of Dj'ankaiyuDiD (little white round things,
R.), Anglicized Little-white-eyes, who had gray eyes. Age class terms are used
not uncommonly as given names-Little-girl, Little-boy; and, in one case,
shiyatsi, young-man, is a surname.
There are several personal names, in the genealogical tables or in the
partial house census, from other languages or referring to other peoples-- (Gen.
I, 34) is a Delaware word (the boy's mother was Delaware); Piachiti by Caddo
rendered Pichita (Gen. II, 29), a Kickapoo name (the boy's mother was Kickapoo).
Note also Inkinishit'iti, Little-white-man72 Ingkanish (Gen.
III, 5) (the name-bearer's father being White), Washish (Osage), a Caddo despite
his name; Tsa'wetsita (Mr. Wichita, Shikapu't'iti, and Sha'ta (the name-bearers
being in fact Wichita, Kickapoo, and Choctaw). Tahbakumshia (Gen. II, 16) is a
Shawnee name, the name-bearer being a Shawnee. The father of Edith Kichai (Gen.
I, 31) was named Kitsaiish (from which Kichai is Anglicized) merely because he
looked like these people.
As in the foregoing case, patronymics have come into use; although
erratically, not always describing the paternal relation. For example, at the
Catholic mission school which White Moon went to as a little boy he was given
Martin as a patronymic, the name of the second husband of his grandmother, his
mother's mother, with whom he lived-Michael Martin was White Moon's school name,
although his father's English name was Thomas Wister. The eldest son of Thomas
Wister took as patronymic the name of his mother's second husband, Keys.73
Sam Binger (Gen. II, 40) takes not the patronymic of his brother and sisters,
but as his patronymic the name of the town about which he used to hang. Of the
youngest generation most have no Indian name. Frequently the English name
becomes Caddoized, e.g. Michael becomes Maika; Vincent, Binsin; Levi, Nibaihi.
The prefix sa for a female, tsa' for a male, is used as a
title and translated Miss or Mr. "Sir," we might translate, as, for example, in
tsa'iiniGu (R. iiniGu', mountain or prayer),
the term for a Christian cleric--Sir priest; or in tsa'shiadinana
(braid-down-back), the term for Chinaman--Sir Chinaman; or in tsa'niotsi,
Sir Cry-baby, a nickname borne by three men of whom one is a White married to an
Indian. Tsa' may be omitted; were sa omitted the inference would
be that you were referring to a male i.e. sa is never omitted; just as in English
usage the patronymic alone is not used for a woman. But even with these
prefixes of respect you are supposed not to call your seniors by name. "It
almost kills people older than you if you call them by name." In this
respect it is significant that White Moon does not know his mother's name.
(Nor did Pardon know his grandfather's Indian name.) She died when she was
nineteen, during his infancy, and White Moon's grandmother, her mother, has
always referred to her by the junior reciprocal, hanin.
And yet, his stepmother, Margaret Deer, White Moon will call Margaret,
she calling him, Maika (Mike). And White Moon calls by name Ross Maro', although Ross is the husband of one called "little mother." But Ross
is a contemporary of White Moon, and Margaret Deer belongs to the younger rather
than to the older generation. In the younger generation the use of names is
habitual.
There is no reluctance, according to White Moon and Pardon, to refer to the
dead by name. Ingkanish denied this, adding that he himself, however, did not
entertain the reluctance.
Where are two instances in the genealogies of mother and son having the
same name-Kasihshu (Gen. I, 18, 46), and Chanatih (Gen. II, 14, 30). Whether the
son was named from the mother or mother from son, White Moon does not know. His
suggestion that the mother might well have been named from the son indicates
some expression of teknonymy with which in general he seems not unfamiliar. The
mother of one Vincent Johnson is referred to as Sabinsin, a positive case of
teknonymy. There is no case of a man being referred to by the name of his
offspring.
A woman may be referred to by her husband's name e.g. Sawashish, "Mrs."
Osage, the wife of Washish.
70 Cp. Dorsey 2: 39.
71 More Probably, I surmise, from his connection with the Ghost
dance, see p. 47.
72 The etymology of the term inkinish (ingkanish) for White
man is obscure. A White is
also called hanu (abbreviated from hayanu) haGaiyu', human, white,
in distinction to the term for Indian, hayanu atinu', human, red.
73 White Moon insists that Keys is the son of Wister, but White Moon
does not refer Keys as brother, nor was Keys an heir to Waster's land.
74 Like Shawnee, the Delaware sent their children, boys and girls,
from eight years upwards, into the brush to get a supernatural partner. Of his
daily river bath, Pardon, Caddo, D )` law he early "I never got any partner from
it, only rheumatism."
