User:Pingnova

Pingnova. Ping for short. He/him pronouns. Interested in upper Midwest USA history. Native American-English speaker and rudimentary American Sign Language and Dakota dialect language speaker. Basic understanding of Lakota dialect and Ojibwe dialect construction. Want to improve Dakota/Siouan orthographic and inflection clarity on Wikipedia, e.g. Stephen Riggs' historical transcriptions versus modern language reconstruction. Learning more all the time!

Related language pages on Wikipedia

 * w:Draft:Bdóte
 * Plains Indian Sign Language
 * List of Minnesota placenames of Native American origin
 * Western Siouan languages
 * Dakota language

Created

 * bdóte
 * wakaŋ

Monitoring

 * mní
 * two-spirit
 * wačhípi

High priority

 * Bdóte - split bdóte into proper noun placename article
 * Bdóte Mnísota (Mdóte Mnísota may be worth mentioning as depreciated)
 * "The area of Bdote (or Mdote) Mni Sota is located at the mouth of the Minnesota River where it flows into the Mississippi midway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is, according to Dakota oral traditions, a place of creation. The mouth of the Minnesota’s broad valley is located in a break in the high banks of the Mississippi corridor, a gorge deeply carved by the Falls of St. Anthony in its million-year journey up the river. This place was Bdote Mni Sota: bdote meaning “mouth”; mni sota referring to the clarity of the water and its reflection of the sky. The exact boundaries of Bdote Mni Sota are hard to determine. Sites generally considered to be within this sacred district include Mni Sni (Coldwater Spring) and Oheyawahi (Pilot Knob). Some Dakota include Ṭaḳu Wakaŋ Ṭip̣i (Carver’s Cave) and Mounds Park within this region as well." pg 20
 * Minnesota - correct English translations of Mní Sota (Mní Sota Makoce), e.g. explanation from Star Tribune
 * target sources citing Stephen Riggs' orthography for clarity around different inflections
 * Waṡicuŋ - Europeans, White people. There is much legend and misinformation surrounding this word.
 * wasicu - existing page, Lakota dialect
 * "Moving to where the game was more plentiful, and isolated in the deep woods of the Upper Mississippi, the Dakota knew about the French from their interactions with the Ojibwe and Odawa long before they actually met them for the first time. By the early 1800s, trade goods began to filter in through the Ojibwe and Odawa, including iron pots, knives, blankets, and guns, so that by the time French voyageurs entered the Upper Mississippi Valley, “the Dakotas had no reason to be either shocked or frightened. They had no illusions that these were superior beings sent by the Great Spirit, though they were deeply impressed by their wondrous technology.” It is no surprise, then, that they were called Waṡicuŋ, or people who had done well for themselves. And events were set into motion that would change the face of Mni Sota Makoce forever." Mni Sota Makoce pg 29
 * Oc̣eti Ṡaḳowiŋ - the Dakota people
 * Mníowé Sní
 * Owamniyomni
 * tioṡpaye (Hyman tiospaye) - an extended family unit, relations, defined by Dakota custom vs European standards. The main family unit for an individual in Dakota society, vs the Euro-American nuclear family-style unit.
 * wakanyeza - sacred beings: children (Hyman)
 * (wakaŋ) wakan + yeza (Hyman, ch 1): "The Wakinyan, Thunder Being, design that the woman created with black-dyed quills invoked the wakan—the sacred and mysterious—nature of women’s artwork."

Full list

 * Transcribing Mni Sota Makoce (Westerman & White)
 * otókahe
 * Kuŋṡi Maka - Grandmother Earth
 * Uŋkteḣi - Dakota water spirit, also uŋkteḣi
 * "The uŋkteḣi were called upon to flood the land and cleanse it of the people’s disrespectful actions." pg 21
 * wakiŋyaŋ - thunder beings (collective noun and singular)
 * Hyman Wakinyan - note capitalization, singular form "Thunder Being"
 * "Dakota peoples shared their world with Wakinyan and other spirit beings who inhabited skies, rivers, lakes, and forests and protected and sometimes threatened them as they went about their lives. Adorning their artwork with images of these wakan spirit beings highlighted the association of artistic creation with the wakan." (Hyman, ch 1)
 * Hyman provides the following footnote: "On cradleboards, see Hail and Ahtone, Gifts of Pride and Love; on spirit beings, see Philander Prescott, “The Dacotahs or Sioux of the Upper Mississippi,” in School-craft, et al., Historical and Statistical Information (1847), 3:232–33."
 * Ṭaḳu Wakaŋ Tip̣i
 * Wicaŋḣpi Oyate, Star People
 * Caṡḳe Taŋka and Caṡḳe Cistiŋna - related to Bdóte
 * caṡḳe
 * taŋka
 * Caŋku Wanagi, Spirit Road, the Milky Way
 * Ḣe Mni C̣aŋ - Barn Bluff near present-day Red Wing
 * I saŋ ti - "where they live under the fog," near Red Wing
 * Bdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ (Mdewakanton): The spiritual people who live by the water. Hyman: Mdewakantunwan
 * Sisituŋwaŋ (Sisseton): The medicine people who live by the water. Hyman: Sisitunwan
 * Waḣpekute (Wahpekute): The warriors who protected the medicine people and could shoot from among the leaves. Hyman: same, Wahpekute
 * Waḣpetuŋwaŋ (Wahpeton): The people who live in the forest. Hyman: Wahpetunwan
 * Distinction and governance organization of tribes: "These Dakota peoples constituted four of the , the ." (Hyman, "Introduction", emphasis mine)
 * Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton are the Minnesota tribes. "One of the primary distinctions between the  and  was language." (Hyman, "Introduction")
 * Iḣaŋktuŋwaŋ (Yankton): The people who live at the edge of the great forest. Hyman: Ihanktunwan
 * Iḣaŋktuŋwaŋna (Yanktonai): Those scattered at the edge of the forest. Hyman: Inhanktunwanna
 * Tituŋwaŋ (Teton): Dwellers of the plains. Hyman: same, Titunwan
 * Distinction and governance: "The Titunwan, the largest of the seven groups then and now, were themselves divided into another seven council fires." (Hyman, "Introduction")
 * Hyman provides the following footnote: "Meyer, History of the Santee Sioux, vii; Wilson and Taylor, Remember This!, 277, 4–5; Hoover, Sioux Country, 40–41. The Lakota Council Fires are the Oglala, They Scatter Their Own; the Sicangu, Burnt Thighs; the Mnikowaju, Planters Beside the Water; the Itazipco, Those With Bows; the Oohe Numpa, Two Kettle; and the Sihasapa, Black Feet."
 * Manton, Manton Dakota (tribe), Black Dog (Dakota village)
 * "In 1689 a French document claiming possession of the region mentions a Mantanton Dakota presence at the mouth of the Minnesota River and also suggests the possibility of a village site there. The later village known as Black Dog may have been located near the mouth of the Minnesota River before Fort Snelling was built. Trader James H. Lockwood, who arrived in the Upper Mississippi region in 1816, wrote, “There was another small band who had their village at Mendota, which signifies the meeting of the waters, whose chief was called Black Dog.” After the construction of Fort Snelling, Indian Agent Lawrence Taliaferro resisted attempts by various Dakota to locate a village there, perhaps thinking he would be forced to show favoritism toward those villagers." pg 20
 * Kiyuksa, collective name for historical Dakota group living in wider Bdóte region. Part of the Dakota flood story, a mythological trope common in cultures worldwide, for example the story of Noah's Arc in Christianity.
 * "Bdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ Dakota village found lowest on the Mississippi River was that of the Kiyuksa band, at Wabasha’s village or Wapasha’s Prairie" pg 26
 * pipestone quarry: "Joseph Nicollet stated that the Dakota name for “this very sacred quarry” was “iyanska K’api; that is to say, the place where one digs the red rock,” or “Chanduhuppa Shak’api—there where one digs the red pipes.” An early written reference to the pipestone quarry and its importance to the Dakota occurred in Pierre Le Sueur’s notes from around 1700, where he recorded that the “Hinhanctons” (Ihaŋktuŋwaŋ or Yanktons) were known as the village “of the stone (because of a red stone quarry that is found near them in the middle of a prairie).”"
 * iŋyaŋ ṡa or red stone, pipestone.
 * Isaŋti mde (Knife Lake in Mille Lacs), said to be the root for Santee and alternate to I saŋ ti, "Issatis" by Father Louis Hennepin, applied to Eastern Dakota. "Lac des Sioux" and "Lac de Buade" on French maps. Pg 24
 * mniyomni to - blue whirlpool
 * yomni
 * to (Dakota)
 * Iŋyaŋ Hokṡida
 * Iŋyaŋ Taŋka
 * owa, owé
 * sní
 * Winnebago - Ho-Chunk prince
 * Ḣaḣa Wakpa
 * Wapiya Wicaṡṭa - Spirit Lake
 * Puatsipi - Cree, "Dakota River," today Ballantyne River
 * Wazina Ha Wakpa - Pine Bark River
 * kaposia
 * Hyman: "Bands occupied permanent summer villages usually known by the name of their leader. Little Crow’s band, for instance, inhabited Kaposia, meaning “Not Encumbered with Much Baggage,” on the west bank of the Mississippi, eight miles downstream from the mouth of the Minnesota River."
 * Mazomani
 * Hyman: "Little Rapids, forty-five miles upriver from the Mississippi on the Minnesota, was the site of the village of Mazomani, Walking Iron."
 * Hyman: "Such an awl handle appeared among the objects excavated in 1980 in what had been the garbage dump in the village of a Wahpetunwan leader at Little Rapids in the early nineteenth century."
 * Winona
 * Hyman: "The town of Winona, Minnesota, was founded in 1851 on the summer village site of the Dakota leaders of Wabasha’s lineage."
 * Hyman provides the following footnote: "Babcock, “Sioux Villages in Minnesota.” On Wabasha’s village, see Nilles, A History of Wapasha’s Prairie. On the yearly cycle of Dakota encampments, see Spector, What this Awl Means, 161, 67–77."
 * wasna
 * Hyman: "Some of the dried fruits and berries would be worked with tallow to produce wasna, rich pemmican that could be easily transported and provided dense nutrition over the winter."
 * psinca, psincinca (child of wild rice), psin (wild rice) (Hyman]
 * mdo - "Indian potato" (Hyman)
 * tipsinna (Hyman)
 * Thíŋpsiŋla - Lakota artists gather for Night Market, Indian Country Today
 * hambdeciya - vision quest (Hyman)
 * parfleche (parfleches plural) - French word given to strong rawhide bags for moving camp
 * Hyman: "strong enough to turn away (par) arrows (fleches)."
 * travois - two poles which carried people and items between campsites (Hyman)
 * cekpa - an infant's umbilical cord (Hyman)
 * Winyan Numpapi - Double Woman or Two-Women
 * Hyman: "One elder told her that “the Two-Women are the artists of the Earth. It is they who give or withhold artistic skill to Santee women … Sometimes when a Santee woman is very gifted with her hands, she will say as in a joke, ‘I have dreamed of the Two-Women, doubtless!’” Double Woman, Winyan Numpapi, appears in numerous Dakota stories as a spirit being who holds both promise and threat. The promise lies in women’s creative capacity, and this figure is widely associated with women’s artistic talents."
 * wamanosa - thief (Hyman): wamánuŋ s’a (DIWW)

Someday

 * wide edit to update and standardize Dakota orthography on wiki projects
 * specifying which orthographic system a word uses
 * indicating the most popular or most correct instance of a word
 * related but not verified source: https://www.languagegeek.com/siouan/nakoda_assiniboine.html
 * wide edit to specify Dakota dialects: Dakota (Santee-Sisseton), Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai), Lakota (Teton), Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Nakoda (Stoney).
 * related but not verified source: https://www.languagegeek.com/siouan/lakota.html
 * editing and adding Iowa language vocabulary
 * wider Anishinaabe review, outside of Ojibwe dialects

Personal acceptable sources for Dakota and Siouan
I may not leave comprehensive citations when creating or editing pages. Fellow editors with questions or seeking verification can alert me on my talk page or the article talk page, and peruse these resources if you wish, which most of my edits build from.

Books

 * Best modern summary of Dakota history and location language, with comparisons to modern scholarship and Dakota tradition. Should take precedence over other sources.
 * Best modern summary of Dakota history and location language, with comparisons to modern scholarship and Dakota tradition. Should take precedence over other sources.


 * Definitive listing of Minnesota placenames, including Dakota or Native origin. Not Native focused. Revised several times since original publication in 1920. Typically accurate, particularly in later editions. Takes precedence over historical sources but not Mni Sota Makoce.
 * Definitive listing of Minnesota placenames, including Dakota or Native origin. Not Native focused. Revised several times since original publication in 1920. Typically accurate, particularly in later editions. Takes precedence over historical sources but not Mni Sota Makoce.


 * Historical understandings only. Early European attempt at Romanizing Dakota. Should not take precedence on pages for words in modern use. Currently this is a problem on English Wikimedia projects.
 * Historical understandings only. Early European attempt at Romanizing Dakota. Should not take precedence on pages for words in modern use. Currently this is a problem on English Wikimedia projects.

Online encyclopedias

 * Dakota-English Dictionary, Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakotah Language Institute (SWODLI)
 * Searchable database compiled from two historical sources:
 * An English-Dakota Dictionary, by John P. Williamson, published in 1902 by the American Tract Society and reprinted in 1992 by the Minnesota Historical Society.
 * English to Dakotah Dictionary, As Spoken By the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, written by SWODLI and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Treasured Elders, and published by SWODLI in 2015.
 * Not prioritized above comprehensive encyclopedic modern sources such as Mni Sota Makoce. Helpful comparison against Riggs.

Miscellanous online sources

 * Tokeheya Dakotah Iapi Kin: Beginning Dakota, Minnesota Historical Society, online learning module
 * Official textbook in many language courses. Modern verbal and written Dakota. Provided free online. Reliable source for modern basics.


 * Bdote Memory Map, Minnesota Humanities Center
 * Oral history project covering major historical, religious, and linguistic records of Bdóte within the Twin Cities, Minnesota region.


 * Dakota Dictionary Online, University of Minnesota
 * Dead resource which is cited in many more live resources. Worth pursuing a copy at some point to cross reference. University of MN has the premiere Dakota language learning, teaching, and reconstruction programs.


 * Dakota Translations of Stephen Riggs & Co, Pond Dakota Heritage Society
 * List of further translations by Riggs, primarily Christian bibles. Low priority, but historically significant. Most of these are easily accessible on Internet Archive.


 * OLAC resources in and about Dakota language