polaltes?

[Barbara Need]

I confess that my first guess is poleaxes. What is the larger context?
(I.e., is this a print or handwritten source?)

Barbara

Barbara Need
Ithaca

On 9 Nov 2010, at 7:21 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Anyone know what this means?
>
> polaltes
>
> context: When on the bluff, about 400 Indians came running along the
> beach flashing their polaltes.
>
> The tribe is Wiyot, was in the San Francisco Bay area around 1820ish.
> [Perhaps a word from their "Macro-Algonquian" language (OED on
> "Wiyot").  Googling hints that their may be a dictionary.]
>
> (And don't suggest "patooties", unless you have evidence.)

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