please forward to the list (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

Posted for Jan Ullrich.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 22:17:53 +0200
From: Jan Ullrich <mathotopa at centrum.cz>
To: Koontz John E <John.Koontz at Colorado.EDU>
Subject: please forward to the list

Catherine Rudin wrote:

> A colleague here at Wayne State is writing something about Native American
> vs. European views of "the land" and asked me if any Native American
> languages have a word for land that means/is derived from "mother" (or
> presumably vice versa).

In traditional prayers the Lakhotas address the Earth as UNci' Makha' -
"Grandmother Earth".
In my audio collection of about 300 Lakhota prayer songs UNci' Makha'
appears about 10 times. In two songs nikhuN'shi (your grandmother) is used
instead, only symbolically without mentioning any particular word for Earth
or land.
The recent literature is full of the "Mother Earth" term, but I'd guess this
is a modern influence of the New Age or of the Pan-Indian approach. I have
no record of a song or a prayer with the word "iná" (mother) applied for the
land or the Earth.

> He'd probably be interested in any other metaphorical ways of refering to
> land too, and anything that indicates land conceived of as a possession
> (or not).

I don't know if this is what your colleague is looking for, but in the songs
I found:
ThuNkashila makhoce kiN thawamakiya - Grandfather (Creator) gave me the land
makhoce waN washe chic'upi cha yanipi kte - I gave a good country so that
you may live (Creators words)


Also in so called Four Direction songs (which usually are actually six
direction songs) the directions are represented by animals and the earth
direction is usually symbolized by wahiN'heya - the mole.


Jan