And just as dealers in Indian relics may also sell Confederate money, calla lily seeds, and pills to solve or bring on female trouble, so I, William the Blind, will alongside my vending of the Nez Perce War offer for purchase various Americanisms and a few half-breed sayings.
Áhaha—(Nimiputumít.) Noise made when laughing.
Anásh—(Umatilla.) The top portion of a plant.
Átawit—(Umatilla.) Sweetheart.
Aparejo—(Mexican Spanish.) A cargo saddle for mules. As one soldier explained: “It’s like two leather cushions hinged together at the top . . . First, a couple of saddle blankets are put on, then the aparejo is sat astride the animal’s back . . . Now the boxes or sacks are laid on as near the top as possible & fastened together with a rope.” Then comes a girth, and the aparejo is cinched.
Acqua-regia—(American English version of Latin.) One part nitric acid to three parts hydrochloric acid. Used to dissolve gold, which will not dissolve in either of these acids alone.
Barefoot whiskey—(Tennessee slang, according to Walt Whitman.) The undiluted kind.
Blackfoot rum—(Canadian and American.) A watered-down variety concocted by traders, which cheaply served the purpose of intoxicating the Blackfeet.
Bitterroot—See spatlam.
Bone Game—See Stick Game.
Book of Light—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) The Bible.
Buffalo—(American Western colloquial.) Bison, really, but I would be even more pedantic than usual to speak of the Bison Country, bison soldiers, etc. In unfixed usages I have not hesitated to interchange “buffalo” and “bison” from time to time.
Butterfly—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) Vulva. “Lapwai” means “butterfly.” So does “káyayayaya.”
Calomel—(Various English and American.) A medicine containing, among other ingredients, opium and mercury. Used by the U.S. Army well past 1877; my 1911 Britannica still recommends it.
Camas—(Nimiputumít and other languages.) There were several different varieties of this edible tuber, which was a staple in the diets of many Indians from British Columbia down to California. The most useful kind, common camas, is Camassia quamash. (Lewis and Clark often spelled the name “quamash.”) Camas was used in a tea by Blackfoot [G 2] women to induce labor. The flowers of this plant were usually blue or purple. “It looks like a little hyacinth-bulb, and when roasted is as nice as a chestnut. We have seen it in blossom, when its pale-blue flowers covered the fields so closely that, at a little distance, we took it for a lake.” (Several varieties of the appropriately named death camas sport white flowers.) White settlers sometimes used pigs to destroy the camas meadows to deny Native Americans this food supply; more often, however, the whites were simply indifferent, and since the meadows were fine for grazing stock and such uses, that was that.
Cantenisses—Flapped saddle-pockets, often loaded up with cartridges.
Chá-á—The call of a bluejay, per Meriwether Lewis, whose orthography is “cha-ah, cha-ah!” I have made it look more like Nimiputumít.
Cous—(Nimiputumít.) [Lewis and Clark often spelled it “cows,” so we can pronounce it accordingly. Other spellings: “khouse,” “couse.”] Also known as biscuitroot or breadroot, this tuberous plant was almost as useful to Nez Perce as camas. Lewis informs us that “the cows is a knobbed root of an irregularly rounded form not unlike the Gensang . . . This root they collect, rub of[f] a thin black rhind which covers it and pounding it expose it in cakes to the sun . . . The noise of their women pounding roots reminds me of a nail factory.” Root oil could be applied to sores, and the plant was sometimes smoked. The Crows called it “bear root”; the Latin name is Lomatium cous. Several related species were also employed.
Crease—(American English.) To shoot a wild horse in a certain portion of the neck near the withers, in order to stun and capture it.
Dodger—(Confederate slang.) Cornmeal bread or biscuit.
Eye necklace—(Anglicized Nimiputumít, invented.) Field-glasses. Aoki’s dictionary gives no term for this (or for “binoculars”), so I have made this up.
File closer—(U.S. Army.) An officer or NCO at rear or flank to supervise men in ranks.
Flint hide—(American English.) The skin of a buffalo, cow, or other leather-producing animal, prepared simply by scraping it, soaking it in a stream, and then drying it in the sun. Used where hardness and stiffness were paramount, as in moccasin soles, tipi covers and the pegged-out drumheads which are beaten on by the stick musicians at a Sun Dance.
Gangue mineral—(Various English and American.) “Associated with the ore minerals there are usually certain common ones, chiefly of non-metallic character, which carry no values worth extracting,” including quartz, fluorite, feldspar, & c.
Getting-drunk liquid—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) Whiskey.
German silver—(American.) First manufactured in 1863, this trade item “really contains no silver, but is an alloy of nickel, zinc, and copper.”
Government—(Various English and American.) To Howard, a living American entity, so I always capitalize.
Guidon—(U.S. Army.) A swallowtailed American flag on a pole, taken with a regiment into the field and planted each night at camp.
Hairpipe—(U.S. Army.) Long cylindrical bead made of clamshell or bone.
Hik’íseyce—(Nimiputumít.) “It [the land] is wrinkled.” I have used this in reference to the country around White Bird Canyon.
Hinimí—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of a horse’s neigh.
Í-tsitsitsititsits—(Nimiputumít.) “Particle that describes shivering from cold.”
Kaa náko haamankhnáawyanikh kaakíne hilkilíinenikh?—(Nimiputumít.) Why are they acting brave and milling around here?
Khattát!—(Nimiputumít.) Noise of something being ripped.
King George—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) A product of the place we now call Canada. [Aoki’s dictionary, from which I got this, does not say when it entered the language, so I have felt free to imagine its use in 1877.] And (so I imagine it, anyhow) by extension from “Boston,” a Caucasian inhabitant of what is now Canada.
Kinnikinnick—(Chinook jargon?) A leaf which was sometimes smoked by itself, or sometimes mixed with tobacco, to make the latter more mild. The identity of the leaf seemed to vary widely. In the Lewis and Clark Botanical Garden of the arboretum in Boise there is an herb labeled as such. But to the Crows, kinnikinnick was often or usually red willow bark.
Kíw—(Nimiputumít.) A hammering sound.
Kloochman—(Chinook jargon.) Woman [a pioneer woman’s transliteration]. “Young woman” is “Ten-as-clooch-man.”
Kuseyn—(Nimiputumít.) The Buffalo Country. [See entry on buffalo, above, this glossary.] Aoki notes: “It sometimes refers to today’s Montana, and sometimes to the country east of the Rocky Mountains [sic] divide.” The buffalo hunters were called Kuseynutitoqan.
Kuyímkuyim—(Nimiputumít.) Blue racer snake.
Lílps—(Nimiputumít.) A certain edible white mushroom which grows beneath pine trees.
Marrow-like—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) Hard candy. See note to “Red Salmon Season” on the “like” Nimiputumít words for American commodities, p. 1316.
Mokh—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of a fish splashing.
Mululululu—(Nimiputumít.) The noise of a bubbling river.
Paq—(Nimiputumít.) A marten’s cry.
Parfleche—(Nimiputumít.) Translucent pieces of rawhide, often painted with earth pigments and hide glue in geometric shapes, and assembled into pouches, saddlebags and the like. The Crows are masterful at this art.
Pátskh—(Umatilla.) To fuck.
Pokát—(Nimiputumít.) “Sound of MAGPIE pecking COYOTE’s eye-fat.”
Pim!—(Nimiputumít.) The noise of a small drum. I have used this sound to represent a small caliber gunshot.
Qiqaw!—(Nimiputumít.) The noise made by skeletons moving.
Qáw!—(Nimiputumít.) A pounding noise.
Qoh!—(Nimiputumít.) The cry of a raven (McWhorter’s orthography).
Recruit—(American English.) To restore to health, as in “recruit his command.”
Red—(American English.) In 1877 this meant an Indian, not a Communist.
Reservation—(American English euphemism.) “The Reservation system a good one for everyone but the Indians and the people.”—Lieutenant C. E. S. Wood.— It is especially saddening to consider that even the meager “reservation” onto which a given band of Indians were removed did not necessarily remain theirs in perpetuity. Note for instance President Buchanan’s executive order of 1857 concerning the Grande Ronde reservation: “Set apart as a reservation for Indian purposes until otherwise ordered.”
Rocky Mountain fever—(U.S. Army; general American English.) A mild fever accompanied by painful swelling of the feet; believed to be altitude dependent.
Shikèmnúvit—(Umatilla.) Horseless.
Shlal—(Pseudo-Nimiputumít.) The sound of a fetus moving inside its mother. Invented by WTV.
Shlap—(Nimiputumít.) The sound of a raven’s wingbeat.
Shláyayaya—(Nimiputumít.) The sound of icicles striking each other.
Shlokh-shlokh—(Nimiputumít.) Noise of footsteps in dry grass.
Sibley tent (U.S. Army.) “A patented tent copied from the Plains Indian’s teepee . . . conical . . . , some eighteen feet in diameter, and had an iron stove in the centre . . .” This Civil War invention could sleep up to twenty soldiers if they lay spoon-fashion on their sides. It saw moderate use in that conflict, and very occasional use in the Plains Indian Wars.
Side-lining—(U.S. Army; general American English.) “The fastening of the hind and forefoot on the same side of the animal together; side-lines had a chain between the feet to prevent the Indians from cutting them and releasing the animals.”—J. Lee Humfreville, 1899.
Síikstiwaa—(Nimiputumít.) Darling.
Silk buffalo robe—“A three year old calfless cow pelt and one of the most value.”
Sink—Latrine.
Spatlam—(Chinook jargon?) “In May they get the spatlam, or bitter-root. This is a delicate white root, that dissolves in boiling, and forms a white jelly. The Bitter Root River and Mountains get their name from this plant.”—Caroline Leighton, Washington Territory, 1866.
Stick Game—(Various Indian, Anglicized.) A form of gambling which involved concealing two sticks (one black and one white) in any of four hands. A bettor had to guess where each stick was. The Bone Game was similar.
Taq!—(Nimiputumít.) The noise of a thing getting crushed.
Taqaqaq—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of a crackling fire.
Tekh!—(Nimiputumít.) Noise made by a locust.
Timm!—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of thunder.
Titálin!—(Nimiputumít.) Extremely loud noise, as of an artillery shell.
Tiyé-pu—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of wind whistling through dead wood.
Tóq—(Nimiputumít.) Actually, not an onomatopoetic sound as so often, but a C-class verb. To crackle.
Tsálalal—(Nimiputumít.) The way a thing tumbles downward (Aoki gives the example of a shot eagle).
Túmm—(Nimiputumít.) Sound of many katydids.
Wakesh nun pakilauitin / JEHOVAN’M yiyauki—(Nimiputumít.) The refrain of the first hymn in the Nez Perce gospel book of 1897. In her introductory note the author informs us that “Rev. Robert Williams loved this Hymn and he sang it with his dying breath.” Williams was first pastor of the First Church, Kamiah, and called by Miss S. L. McBeth “the St. Paul of the Nez Perces.”
Wa-láhsasa—(Nimiputumít.) “I am flying up. I am jumping up. I am worshipping (as a Dreamer).” This definition of Aoki’s I have slightly “retranslated.”
Wapato—(Chinook jargon.) Duck potato or arrowweed.
Wá-wa—(Nimiputumít.) A mosquito. I have (plausibly, I hope) imagined this to also represent the mosquito’s sound.
Wind’s tears—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) A flower, species not given.
Wittco Weeon—(Assiniboine.) [In the text I have altered the mid-nineteenth-century spelling to the more currently plausible wíttko wíyon.] “Fool woman,” a slut.
Woodhawk—(American English.) Woodcutter-entrepreneurs who sold their haul to passing steamboats.