Oglala

[Koontz John E]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 12:35:22 -0600
From: Louis Garcia <garcrobe at hoopster.little-hoop.cc.nd.us>

I noticed on your language message board, some one asking about Oglala.
...
Oglala or as is said here, Okdada, means a sign of contempt.
Scatters ones own is the sign language sign for this word.
You take your thumb and bring it to the tips of your fingers, to make a
group of five. Then you flick our wrist quickly outwardly.
This means throwing sand or dirt at someone. Upon receiving the sign the
oldtimers went for their knifes.

These Lakota people were always doing this and so received the name.
...

====

JEK:

I've checked in Buechel, Riggs, and Williamson without finding this sense
of oglala (ohdada, okdada, etc.).  I tried locating comparable terms from
the English index of Buechel without any luck either.  I've also tried
looking under 'flick' in the Siouan Archives files without any luck.  This
was because I definitely recall stumbling across a Deloria text (perhaps
only in English?) that refers to a gesture described (in the English) as
"flicking the fingers," and indicates it is a gesture of contempt.  Iktomi
gets into trouble with Buzzard, I think, because he makes this gesture at
him behind his back.  (This is the Dakotan vesion of the story in which
Trickster ends up stuck in a hollow tree.)

What strikes me about this explanation of the name Oglala is that it
becomes more generic and descriptive, and falls more in line with the
common Plains practice of assigning mildly to extremely insulting names to
other subdivisions of the group.