Colors in Dakota -Duta

[Linda Cumberland]

My Assiniboine consultants say -nuta 'red' is only used in names.
Examples are wiNyaNnuta 'Red Woman", xexaka nuta 'Red Elk'. However,
one word for 'turkey' is paxnuta 'red snot', but that's the only
non-name Assiniboine word I have, so -nuta seems to be only productive
in naming.

Then there is the town of Sintaluta, SK where Carry The Kettle Reserve
is, which is said to refer to the red tail of the fox, although it
isn't an Assiniboine word and the origin of the name is murky.

Friends of mine have a drum group called Maza Duta 'Red Iron', named
for one of the last headmen of the Pheasant Rump Band (Saksatchewan),
of whom they are all descendants. The /d/ of Maza Duta is a mystery,
too, except that many speakers post-occlude their n's to the point
that /n/ has frequently been recorded over the past century and a half
as [nd], so maybe it was -nduta and got written down as -duta - and
who at Pheasant Rump today would know the difference, since the only
remaining fluent speaker over there - and the only one old enough to
remember - has long since lost the heart to speak Assiniboine at all.

For what it's worth,

Linda
-------------------
> As far as I can determine duta/luta is the color scarlet or bright
red.
> Whereas sa is for plain red, also for the color of hair. Ex: Pehinsa
for
> someone with red hair.
> However the word for headress wapesha (Lakotas don't seem to use the
noun
> marker wa, and just use pesa) should be wapeduta for the bright red
deer
> hair.
>
> Also in the Wakan Wacipi 'Waduta' in the songs seem to be translated
as
> something sacred.
> Most of the traditional names also have duta. Only a handful use the
term
> sa.
> Toksta ake,
> Louis Garcia
>
>
>