"Redskin" not derogatory?

[PCM]

I learn something new every day.

I stumbled across this extremely interesting Oct. 3 Washington Post article in which a respected Algonquian language expert disputes the meaning and origin of the term "redskin." Perhaps this explains why the vast majority of American Indians surveyed in a recent poll didn't consider the term "redskin" offensive.

Smithsonian Institution senior linguist Ives Goddard spent seven months researching its history and concluded that "redskin" was first used by Native Americans in the 18th century to distinguish themselves from the white "other" encroaching on their lands and culture.

When it first appeared as an English expression in the early 1800s, "it came in the most respectful context and at the highest level," Goddard said in an interview. "These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves."

Like Goddard, Shoemaker said that by the end of the 18th century, Native Americans were using "red" to describe themselves and to assert their pride of being North America's original inhabitants.

And what had begun 100 years earlier as a reasonably amicable trading exchange, Shoemaker said, during the 1700s evolved into an increasingly tension-filled relationship, as rival European countries intrigued for Indian loyalties and Indians attempted to ward off waves of encroaching settlers.

This is the same Ives Goddard who was quoted in a Feb. 18, 1999, letter to the editor by Larry Stammen, UND Alumni Association, published in the Grand Forks Herald:

I think everyone will be interested to learn that the name Sioux,which some American Indian students have claimed is derogatory in its origin and means snake, is a tribal name only. It actually means speaker of a foreign language, and its usage in the English language has never been taken as insulting.

The source of my information is Ives Goddard, curator and head of the ethnology division in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Goddard is a specialist in Algonquian languages. He is the linguistics editor and technical editor of the Handbook of North American Indians.

The name Sioux has been rejected by some because it allegedly means `snake,' Goddard writes. In the first place, Sioux is meaningless in any Indian language since it is a French shortening of earlier Nadouessioux. This is a Gallicization, with the substitution of the French plural -x for the Ojibwa plural -ak, or an earlier Nadouessiouak, a direct borrowing from Ojibwa na-towe-ssiwak. This Ojibwa word (specifically from the Ottawa dialect) is only used as a tribal name, never as a word for snake, but it is derived from another ethnonym, na-towe, `speak a foreign language.' By the most likely analysis, the Proto-Algonquian word na-towe-wa would mean etmologically, `speaker of a foreign language.'

John Koontz, a linguist and leading authority on Siouan Languages at the University of Colorado, confirms Goddard's conclusions. Nadouessioux and similar French spellings representing Ojibwa Nadouessiouak are the source of the word Sioux as an English term for the various Dakota people and embodies no insulting implication. As far as I know, there is no trace of the terms Sioux or Nadouessioux being taken as insulting in either French or English usage, ever.

[ScottM]

Obviously a white, racist male who is seeking to oppress "persons of color".

BTW: It's Columbus Day, everybody celebrate by eating lasagna tonight!

[redwing77]

Obviously a white, racist male who is seeking to oppress "persons of color".     

BTW:  It's Columbus Day, everybody celebrate by eating lasagna tonight! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't forget Koontz, Goddard's cronie and a lying racist (How could a race of racists such as the whites even care about becoming an expert on anything Sioux? That's just racist to even consider that!)

[Sioux-cia]

I bet these two are 'card carrying' white men whose sole purpose in life is to make GrahamKracker feel more superior because as a card carrrying, registered, only 'real' Indian around he knows that they are lying, Fighting Sioux name and logo supporters who wrote this drivel so UND would have more evidence that the Fighting Sioux name and logo are not hostile and abusive. (Note to self: Buy a punctuation mark!)

[redwing77]

I bet these two are 'card carrying' white men whose sole purpose in life is to make GrahamKracker feel more superior because as a card carrrying, registered, only 'real' Indian around he knows that they are lying, Fighting Sioux name and logo supporters who wrote this drivel so UND would have more evidence that the Fighting Sioux name and logo are not hostile and abusive.  (Note to self: Buy a punctuation mark!)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And since he has his BIA card on him at all times, he can prove it!

[BigGame]

Good information, even though as others have stated it will mean little to the name change elitists.

PCM, you always come through with good stuff.

[4siouxnow]

Good information, even though as others have stated it will mean little to the name change elitists. 

PCM, you always come through with good stuff.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

WOW PCM why weren't you on the team that helped put the orginal appeal to the NCAA together I hope you forward your research to the people that can make a difference.

[redwing77]