calumet de paix

[bi1 at soas.ac.uk]

Interesting about 'war'.  I have seen a phrase ob kicis unpi 'they were
figting them' meaning they were at war with them.  Generally also the
phrase thokkiciyapi 'consider eachother enemies ' is heard, but as in
many societies 'foreigners' or 'strangers' were generall 'enemies'
unless som special arrangement had been made. Or at least that is the
picture that emerges from texts such as those of Buechel, Deloria and
Bushotter.  In arabic too the word qom meaning in one sense 'people'
also means 'enemies', or at least among the bedouin that is so.

Bruce

> I'm not sure there's a countervailing term for 'war' either, though there
> is certainly the term nudaN rendered 'go on the warpath' (itself a
> formulation growing out of early French and English interactions with East
> Coast groups), i.e., 'to conduct a military expedition', which is rendered
> 'war' in translated compounds like 'war chief' (or 'war leader').  There
> are also, I think, some terms often rendered 'to hate each other' ('be in
> a state of war?') that might be relevant.