HIDATSA

[Jimm GoodTracks]

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alan H. Hartley 
  To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:12 AM
  Subject: Re: HIDATSA


  Jimm GoodTracks wrote:

Interestingly, I learned that L & C "Bird Woman", Sakakawea [Chagaa'ga + Mia via A.W.Jones' lexicon]
is indeed Hidatsa language as is the woman.  This is the claim by
a number of Hidatsa informants in the 1920s/ 1930s, and further attested to
by Bull Eye [Gidabi Isda], her grandson and only living decendent in 1930s.
  There are several references in the L & C journals to Sacagawea's Shoshone origins (including her recognition of landmarks in the Shoshones' country and her reunion with her brother) and to her capture by Hidatsas. 
  Yes, there are, and they have all been mostly refuted by the people who REALLY knew who she was.

  L & C had no apparent reason to misrepresent her ethnic origin, and it seems to me very unlikely that they did.
  It is agreed that L & C had no reason to misrepresent her, and there is no suggestion of such on the part of the early day Hidatsa, nor by my comments here.  However, it is rather ethnocentric to accept the information on Bird Woman as understood and written by L & C in their journals and then forthright, dismiss the history offered by the very people with whom this woman lived.  
  At best, L & C were foreigners who were traveling through the land of then indigenous country.  The fact is that they spent only several months in Hidatsa country; they did not understand the various cultures with whom, they communicated via a minimum of three languages of not so great interpreteurs.  L & C were two (2) people -- "Americans" -- and as such, their information stands against a community of indigenous people who say simply that he did not get the correct story.  A fast forward to compare with today's world, we who enjoy state of the art communication equipment, attested interpreteurs and expert CIA information -- and it was just with absolute certainty that "confirmed weapons of mass destruction were within Iraq...".    Infallibility -- never!
  In summary, if indeed, L & C's Journals are completely creditable, and are to be taken as is, then the French have been spelling their names incorrectly, to wit, "Shabono" [in lieu of Charbonneau], etc., and in fact, the entire United States country has fallen into a habit of misspelling English, and needs to return to the faultlessness of the correct spellings as per the L & C Journals.
  Sometimes in linguistics, we come upon folk etymology in regards to the origin of various words.  Recall the Lists' discussions "washichu" Lakota for whiteman, or "Paduka" the southern Siouan word for Commanchi.  I do not believe that these narratives from the accounts of the various Hidatsa elders can be relegated to folk etymology.   Some of the younger Native people in the communities have a saying:  "If you're white - you're right".  Anglo American bias in the writting of history is no longer a secret, however, as it was said in the beginning, there was no intended misrepresentations.  Errors and misinformation do occurr...in today's world and in the world 200 years ago. 
  jgt   

  Here's the Sacagawea entry from my Lewis and Clark Lexicon that's to be published this Fall. (I hope the HTML comes through OK.)
  Sacagawea  {s at -cah-gah-wee-@} A teenaged Shoshone Indian (sister of Cameahwait) who had been captured by the Hidatsa in a raid and was living with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau when the expedition arrived. Carrying her infant son Pomp, she accompanied Lewis and Clark to the Pacific and back and was a valuable interpreter with the Snakes, a guide (in the vicinity of her home), and a gatherer of wild plants.
  Sacagawea's fate after the expedition is uncertain, but Clark notes her as deceased by the late 1820s, and John Luttig, a fur-trader, says in his journal entry for December 20, 1812, "this Evening the Wife of Charbonneau a Snake Squaw, died of a putrid fever she was a good and the best Women in the fort, aged abt 25 years she left a fine infant girl". The death by what was perhaps typhus or typhoid fever of this unnamed wife of Chabonneau occurred at Fort Manuel on the Missouri, near the border between North and South Dakota.

  Sâh-câh-gâh, we â, our Indian woman is very sick this evening; Capt. C. blead her. [10 Jun 05  ML  4.276]

  Sah-cah-gar-we-ah.was one of the female prisoners taken.tho' I cannot discover that she shews any immotion of sorrow in recollecting this event, or of joy in being again restored to her native country [28 Jul 05  ML  5.009]

  The wife of Shabono our interpetr we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions[.] a woman with a party of men is a token of peace [13 Oct 05  WC  5.268]

  In the expedition journals, Sacagawea is often called simply the Indian woman, the squaw, or Charbonneau's wife, and the captains apparently nicknamed her Janey. See potato.

  The indian woman.has been of great Service to me as a pilot through this Country [13 Jul 06  WC  8.180]

  The form of her name in the following quotation (referring to the present-day Sacagawea River), is an example of  the use of m for w in careful speech in the Hidatsa language. (This variation also occurs in Ahwahaway and in Hidatsa a-wah-tee 'river, Missouri River' which Lewis [4.246] writes Amahte.) This characteristic alternation, along with Lewis's translation and his division of the name into two words, as well as the close similarity of the name to the Hidatsa words for 'bird' (tsah-kah-kah) and 'woman' (wee-ah / mee-ah), support the traditional interpretation of Sacagawea's name as Bird Woman in Hidatsa, the language of her captor-adopters, and its pronunciation with a hard g rather than the j sound that later became popular.

  this stream we called Sâh-câ-gar me-âh or bird woman's River, after our interpreter the Snake woman. [20 May 05  ML  4.171]

  Ordway writes her name as though he knew that wea meant simply 'woman' and so omitted it.

  Sahcahgah our Indian woman verry Sick & was bled. [10 Jun 05  JO  9.165]

  Interestingly, I learned that L & C "Bird Woman", Sakakawea [Chagaa'ga + Mia via A.W.Jones' lexicon]
  is indeed Hidatsa language as is the woman.  This is the claim by
  a number of Hidatsa informants in the 1920s/ 1930s, and further attested to
  by Bull Eye [Gidabi Isda], her grandson and only living decendent in 1930s.
  Her confusion as a Lehmi Shoshone, as per the L&C journal came about as a
  result of her marriage to T.Charboneau and his trading expeditions to the
  mountain areas, where Saka'gaMia (as per the pronunciation of the 3Tribes
  Museum staffer and another speaker--a grandson of Walter YoungBear.  Wolf
  Chief in a statement in the 1920s indicated that the Hidatsa would not have
  ventured that far because of respect to their enemies.  He suggested that
  perhaps the Crow went to Shoshone land and captured someone, but the L&C
  accepted history was incorrect.  And I bet noone is willing to bet on the
  present day liklihood of the US Historians rewritting their version of
  history and the events even though the Hidatsa informants and other early
  century documentation tends to collaborate the Native version of the
  accounts.
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