Well, if anyone out there is interesting, please let me know. I have
names for a lot of birds in Lushootseed -- it's hard to get them to read
right in email (since we don't have all the appropriate characters), but
I'd be happy to share. It'd be interesting to know if anyone has access
to similar info for east of the mountains, too!

Coll Thrush (thrush = sxwet [s-hwuht], for example)

On Sat, 20 May 2000, Joanne H. Powell wrote:

> Hi, Coll:
>
> Thanks for the sensible response. I'd like to see the "original" native
> names used for some of the birds...if I could pronounce them!:-)
>
> Regards, Joanne
> Reardan (Spokane) WA
> mailto: jhpowell at iea.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: C. Thrush <ishriver at u.washington.edu>
> To: Tweeters Birding List <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Date: Friday, May 19, 2000 7:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [Re: Birding by Ear] being politically correct.........
>
>
> >
> >Folks,
> >
> >I thought I'd add something to the discussion of "squaw" briefly, since I
> >do a lot of work with Native issues. It's definitely become a hot topic
> >lately, but it's very complicated. Many Indian activists hate the term,
> >because it has a long history of being used as a derogatory slur against
> >Indian women (you should see some of the sources I come across in my
> >research!). Often, it's used like a few of our other awful words for
> >female genitalia. So it's clear that there is a racist history here.
> >
> >On the other hand, there are a number of Native women from Algonquian
> >speaking communities who have pointed out that skwa is a root word meaning
> >woman, and don't see it as a big deal. I've seen some really hot debates
> >about this on a couple of lists. It seems to me that the source of the
> >word is in fact a group of Native languages, but what 19th century
> >Americans did with the word isn't particularly honorable. Marge Bruchac,
> >one of the Algonquian women who have written about this, has become the
> >target of much criticism from activists (even though she is one herself),
> >so you can see how tricky this is.
> >
> >One interesting fallout of all this is the move to remove "squaw" as a
> >place name -- Maine, for example, is doing this right now. While many of
> >us would prefer not to see Nigger Creek or Chinaman Gulch on maps,
> >"Squaw's Tit" and other place names still exist on a lot of maps. One
> >issue, though, is that a lot of place names like these actually attest to
> >the historic presence of real people who were black, Asian, or Indian --
> >when we remove these names, do we remove what little evidence is left of
> >those people, in effect "whitewashing" the landscape? I've proposed that
> >local historians get involved in finding out who the "nigger," "chinaman,"
> >and "squaw" really was, and rename those places after them. (This is
> >especially important, since a lot of these often rural places are assumed
> >to have always been "white space.")
> >
> >So anyway, it's really complicated. I don't know about the oldsquaw and
> >where that term comes from specifically, but I don't think it hurts to
> >talk about this issue. As for those who dismiss all this as "political
> >correctness," you might want to rethink it -- this matters quite a bit to
> >a lot of people. Saying "get over it" simply doesn't address the long
> >history -- and ongoing challenges -- of Indian-white relations. Are we
> >REALLY that invested in a particular name for a mountain or a bird? I
> >mean, what if "Squaw's Tit" was renamed with its Yakama name, or
> >"oldsquaw" was replaced with the Inuit word for that species (if not just
> >long-tailed duck)? Wouldn't that actually be more interesting?
> >
> >Just my two (well, maybe ten) cents' worth first thing in the morning.
> >Now back to birds!
> >
> >Coll
> >
> >*************************************************************************
> >Coll-Peter Thrush
> >Doctoral Candidate in History
> >University of Washington, Seattle
> >ishriver at u.washington.edu
> >*************************************************************************
> >
> >
> >
>
>