Partisan

[Alan Hartley]

Thanks, Bob and Rory.

> I don't suppose the expedition had picked up any temporary followers
> from downstream who might have been helping with the interpretation?
> Or could Clark and the others have already learned enough words
> themselves from the Dhegihans they had passed through earlier to
> prejudice their pronunciation of Dakotan?  Otherwise, a Santee
> version like /mdota'-huNka/ would be pretty close too.  Perhaps
> by the time they reached the Tetons, their representation of the
> local varieties of common Siouan words would have become something
> of a pastiche.

You're probably right, Rory. Pierre Cruzatte was a permanent member of
the expedition, and he spoke Omaha, the language of his mother. Moulton
suggests that he may have been interpeting through some Omaha prisoners
of the Tetons. (Cruzatte was also a renowned fiddler. And he had only
one eye, which may help explain how he shot Lewis in the rear end while
hunting.)

Alan