Cheyenne Ornithology Reference (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

This is an article I've always thought very useful for anyone trying to
sort out Siouan bird terminology, whether for simple lexical purposes, or
as an ethnotaxonomical exercise.

I happened to mention it to Michael McCafferty recently and thought it
might make a reasonable post here.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 13:18:11 -0700 (MST)
From: Koontz John E <koontz at spot.colorado.edu>
To: David Costa <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net>
Cc: Michael Mccafferty <mmccaffe at indiana.edu>,
    "Robert L. Rankin" <rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Cheyenne Ornithology Reference

> What's the reference?

Moore, John H.  1986.  The Ornithology of Cheyenne Religionists.
  Plains Anthropologist 31-113:177-192.

The classification is:

living things > animals > flying creatures > great birds

Note for Bob:  flying creatures is opposed to land creatures, crawling
things, and watermonsters.  I make the third wagdhishka, and the fourth
wakkaNdagi. Great birds are opposed to sacred birds and ordinary birds,
or, wazhiNga.  The sacred birds category includes the thunderbird, the
whirlwinds, and the messengers, some of the latter two of which are
butterflies.  Tornados, crows, woodpeckers, nighthawks, vultures, and
magpies are in this category, too.

(Comparisons to Omaha-Ponca terms.  The following terms are Cheyenne,
perhaps mangled in copying.)

Returning now, for everyone, to eagles, maxeveseo, or great birds,
includes niz 'eagles', oheho 'buzzard', and aenoo 'hawks'.

The eagles are:

moeoniz 'war eagle or eagle, the first color phase of the golden eagle
after fledging'

enskiniz 'striped eagle, immature golden eagle'

niz, xameniz '(ordinary) eagle, mature golden eagle, immature bald eagle'

heoveniz 'yellow eagle, mature golden eagle'

voaxa, histatsitsva 'white eagle, snow head, mature bald eagle, only
grudgingly admitted as an eagle'

totoiniz 'prairie eagle, spotted eagle, mature golden eagle'

maeniz 'red eagle, mature golden eagle, sometimes redtailed and
ferruginous hawks'

otataveniz 'blue eagle, grey eagle, American Swallowtailed Kite'

nizvokamasz 'white-painted eagle, Gyrfalcon'


Cheyenne English usage refers to vultures or buzzards as 'bald eagles',
since the buzzard is called 'bald one' in Cheyenne.  Bald eagles are
called, in English, 'white eagles'.  Cardinals are also called 'robins' in
English.

JEK