Subject: (urth) Indian Rope Tricks

From: Alice Turner <al at ny.playboy.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 17:22:53 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Here, whether you want it or not, is a list of the 13 Algonkian tribes, and
approximately where they hang out:

ALGONKIAN GROUP

Abenaki--Vermont
Arapaho--Great Plains (WY)
Blackfoot--Montana, Alberta
Cheyenne--Great Plains
Cree--West Coast
Fox--Minnesota
Gros Ventre (White Clay People)--Montana
Maliseet--Maine, Newfoundland
Mi'kmaq--Nova Scotia
Montagnais--Quebec, Labrador
Naskapi--Quebec
Odawa--Minnesota, Ontario
Ojibwa--Michigan

So Ojibwa (aka Chippewa--bet you didn't know that) looks good, eh?
Unfortunately, I found an Ojibwa site with animal names, and it didn't work.
More sleuthing: aha, the Potawatami seem to be smack dab on site, but though
I couldn't find a language site for them, it's supposed to be pretty close
to the Ottawa (Odawa), Ojibwa and Algonkin, and allied to the Illinois and
Miami (because of the nature of web engines, it's virtually impossible to
track anything down on the latter two).

But, serendipity produced its usual prizes: I discovered that the Mohegan
(Mohican) is the Wolf tribe (hello Natty Bumppo!) and---are you sitting
down, mantis?---Sioux is French for....the Cutthroat tribe.

-alga-

---

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 00:14:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #4346774 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET03#

alga,

Sioux as French for "cutthroat" (er, "cultellarii"?) now =that= is
very interesting, since it ties in =exactly= with the element of "The
Tale of the Boy Called Frog" of TBOTNS, wherein the teacher of all
these animal Kiplingoids is called, not the expected Baloo the Bear
(hmmm), but the Naked One, "who was also called the Savage, or Squanto"
(III, ch. 19).  This character is the one who taught Frog to plough the
fish, leading Frog to plough his twin brother Fish; this name belongs
to a Native American Indian of the Pawtuxet tribe who is said to have
taught the pilgrims how to plough the fish.

Interesting that the teacher character in both stories (TS and TBCF)
is linked to a Native American Indian name.

OTOH, since he looks like his throat has been cut, does this mean
that we have at long last determined the group that cut him?  (One
presumes that the "Cutthroat Tribe" got their name for doing unto
others rather than self-inflicting, no?)

=mantis=