big knives

[David Costa]

> On a related topic, the term 'long knives' is also very common, and I used to
> think it referred to US Cavalry sabres.  I seem to recollect, though, that
> Ives Goddard has researched this and found a much more specific explanation
> for the term (Kansa maNhiN-ttaNga).  I'll check into this and see what I can
> find.

The 'big knife' epithet for white men is all over the Algonquian languages
of the Great Lakes and beyond. I actually wrote a paper on this long ago
(but never published it). The crucial article that clarified a lot for me
was the following:

Woodward, Arthur. 1928. The "Long Knives". Indian Notes, Museum of the
American Indian, Heye Foundation 5: 64-79. New York.

Here's the relevant excerpt from my paper. I haven't looked at this paper
for 6-7 years, so I make no statements about how much I agree with it now,
but this provides the outline, at least, provided that Woodward's article is
dependable. [if anyone's actually interested in seeing the Algonquian 'big
knife' forms I have, let me know.]

"At this point it is worth discussing where the 'big knife' term ultimately
originated. In an article from 1928, Arthur Woodward persuasively makes a
case that the 'big knife' metaphor has its origins in Iroquoian ritual
speech. According to Woodward,

    'Šall important men of another nation with whom [the Iroquois] came in
contact were, for the sake of convenience and for the purpose of conferring
a delicate honor upon them, each given an Iroquois name. If possible the
name so conferred was a translation into one of the Iroquois dialects of the
English or French name of the conferee.' (page 68) (end of Woodward's quote)

"Thus, Woodward traces the origin of the big knife term to such a name
bestowed on the governor of Virginia, Lord Howard of Effingham, in 1684.
That year, when meeting with a confederation of the Iroquois at Albany, New
York, Governor Howard was given the Mohawk name Assarigoa (phonemic
a?share?kó:wa 'great knife', now 'war chief'; cf. à:share? 'knife'), which
literally means 'big knife'. Apparently, this name arose from a
misunderstanding through presumably Dutch interpreters, with the name Howard
being misinterpreted as the Dutch word houwer, a knife or cutlass.
Consequently, the entire line of governors of Virginia thereafter were known
to the Iroquois as Assarigoa."

"Evidently, the name spread widely from tribe to tribe. According to
Woodward, the name was introduced in Shawnee, Delaware, and Ojibwe councils,
in the process being extended from the Governor of Virginia, to the men of
Virginia, to all English-speaking men of the American colonies, and, in some
languages much later, all white men. By the late 1700's, there are numerous
references to the term in written accounts."

"According to Woodward, the metaphor 'big knife' is found in the languages
of the other Five Nations Iroquois tribes, as well as Huron/Wyandot. To this
day it is found in the Munsee dialect of Delaware, originally spoken in New
Jersey and New York state, as (m)xwanshí:kan 'American', where (m)xw- =
'big' and -anshí:kan = 'knife'."

"The big knife metaphor almost certainly entered Ojibwe via Ottawa, an
Ojibwe dialect spoken around Lake Huron. By the last quarter of the 17th
century, the Ottawa were the dominant group mediating both trade with the
French and inter-Indian trade from the Iroquois country around Lake Ontario,
and were in a position to introduce both trade goods and new vocabulary
westward into the upper Great Lakes. Once borrowed into Ojibwe proper,
probably at the French trading posts around the Mackinac straits in upper
Michigan, the term spread rapidly, as these tribes quickly came to need a
name for this new type of European they had to deal with. Given that Ojibwe
contributed the 'big knife'  term to Fox and Menominee in Wisconsin, it is
very likely that Ojibwe was also responsible for passing the word on to the
Siouan languages west of the Great Lakes. In the Siouan languages in this
area, this metaphor is found in at least four Siouan languages directly west
and southwest of the Great Lakes, the Winnebago or Hochunk language, spoken
in Wisconsin, Lakota, originally spoken in Minnesota, Iowa, south of this,
and further west still, Omaha. These are seen in Table 5. In 1809, the
explorer John Bradbury also noted the name in Osage, and observed that "the
Americans are called the big knives by the Indians of the Missouri". In his
article, Woodward also cites forms of the name found in the Siouan languages
Assiniboine and Mandan. I am not certain how far this name spread into the
Plains outside Algonquian and Siouan, but Woodward does claims that it is
found in the Caddoan languge Arikara."

[end quote]
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