Virtues

[Koontz John E]

I read an interesting article in Plains Anthropologist 47-181:

Sundstrom, Linea.  2002.  Steel Awls for Stone Age Plainswomen:   Rock
Art, Religion, and the Hide Trade on the Northern Plains.  pp. 99-119.

This is an extensive study of the Double Woman (WiNyaN NuNpa) complex.
This is a fascinating article that clarifies a number of things about
traditional Dakotan (and adjacent) culture for me in ways that I think
will help me better understand the Dorsey texts in particular.  I think
anyone interested in Plains folklore should probably read this.

However, I noticed an interesting linguistic or at least lexical point.
Sundstrom explains (p. 100) that "Women at powwows wear an awl case to
show they are industrious, a strike-a-light bag to show their hospitality,
and a knife case to show their generosity (St. Pierre and Long Soldier
1995:77)."

This caught my attention because we had recently mentioned in passing that
Omaha-Ponca was^us^e means both 'brave' and 'generous' (and Dakotan
was^os^e means at least 'brave').  We'd also mentioned in passing the root
*s^kaN (appearing throughout the family), which is connected with ideas of
movement and activity.  I remembered that this is the verb used in some
exhortations to "be active" in Omaha-Ponca, and I thought this was
probably the relevant root for 'industrious' in an Omaha-Ponca context. I
turns out, though that wasi'sige is more common for 'active', and
wase'kkaN is 'quick', and associated quality.  S^kaN does occur, and
u's^kaN (u' cf. Dakotan wo-) is 'business' in Dorsey.  I've seen it in
modern use to refer to an organized affair, like a handgame, described as
u's^k(aN) u'daN 'a good affair'.  The phrase used to translate this was "a
doings."

However, I couldn't think of a term for 'hospitality'.  I couldn't find
one in Swetland, either.  Then I noticed I couldn't find it in Ingham or
Buechel, either.  My suspicion is that the term is there, but with a
different gloss that hasn't occurred to me.

I did find 'hospitable' in LaFlesche, who gives gi'-hi doN-he (ki'hi
toNhe?).  LaFlesche has almost a full column under doN-he 'following the
requirements of [honorable] married life'.  I don't know the corresponding
term in Omaha-Ponca.  I think gi'-hi must be a motion verb, perhaps the
dative of hi 'to arrive there', i.e., 'to arrive for something; arrive to
obtain/fetch something', but this relies on Omaha-Ponca models and the
whole construction is obscure to me,

As near as I can tell (using mainly Ingham), the Teton terms for the two
virtues I can identify are

generous:  thawac^hiN ...was^te 'mind, disposition' + 'pleasant' (nice
stative verb in wa-)

generous:  c^haNte' ...yukhAN 'heart' + 'to be' (inflected as stative)

generous:  ox?aN..phi 'to do, to work' + 'good' (stative)

generous, good-natured:  c^haNl..yuhA 'heart' + 'have' (active)

industrious:  ...blihec^a (stative), ...blihec^aka (stative)

industrious, skilful in making:  wakax wo..hitika 'making' +
'furiously, energetically' (stative)

industrious: napis^taN(ka) 'an industrious person'

I suspect these are not simply synonyms, but without a variety of examples
it would be difficult for a linguist to distinguish the shades of meaning.

I noticed that Swetland gives for 'generous' in Omaha:

noNde udoN 'heart' + 'be good' (dative)

which I've encountered widely as 'be glad, be pleased', e.g., noNde
iN'udoN 'I am glad, lit. my heart is good or more lit. heart is good for
me'.  He also gives

ushkoN udoN 'generous person' (elucidated as 'you did well')

which is just the term I gave above for a 'good doings'.  The dsame
observations would apply as in the Dakotan case.  It would be difficult
for a linguist to determine the shades of meaning involved here without a
body of examples.

JEK