FW: a strange query -- off topic.

[ROOD DAVID S]

One of my students, Chuck Thode, tells me that the word for 'walking 
stick' in the LaFlesche Osage dictionary means something like 'where did 
the buffalo go' (so look under the English word 'buffalo').  Apparently 
there is a description there of how the walking stick told the hunters 
which way to go.  My copy of the LaFlesche dictionary is not handy at the 
moment, so someone else should verify this.

Bob, you'll have to forward this to Sally.

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009, Rankin, Robert L wrote:

> I had this query from Sally Thomason, who works with Salish-speaking people in Montana.    Has anyone heard anything like her beetle account from plains tribes?
>
> It sounds to me a bit like some of our local farmers who say you can tell how cold it will be in the coming Winter by seeing how thick the coat is on fuzzy caterpillars.
>
> Bob
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Here's a weird question: I've heard that some Plains Indians
> consulted a beetle (or maybe a grasshopper) to decide which
> direction to hunt in, by picking it up and seeing how the
> antennae waved.  Can you shed any light on this?  Have
> you heard it?  Did someone do this, and if so, who?   And if
> you haven't heard about it but think it could possibly be a
> true account, can you suggest someone else I should ask?
>
> (I'm cc'ing Rich on this message because he claims,
> rather improbably, that the answer would help him with
> his research -- research which, as far as I know, is not
> concerned with Plains Indians.) [Rich is in computer science. Bob]
>
>  -- Sally
>