CHAPTER 2: Literature review
2.4 Research in Native American personal names
2.4.2 Niitsitapi oral literature on personal names and naming practices
This study explores the uses, roles, and functions, of personal names within the context of Niitsitapi oral tradition. The oral traditions of diverse Native American tribes are comprehensively dealt with by many of the sources that were consulted in this research (e.g.
Mander 1991; Fixico 1993; Cajete 1994; Basso 1996; Deloria 1997; Bastien 2004;
Greymorning 2004). These sources reveal that story forms the basis of Native American oral tradition, since it is the primary means through which traditional knowledge is shared and transferred between successive generations. Fixico (1993:21-36), for instance, emphasises the importance of story-telling as a way of producing sociocultural history and conveying important cultural information about Native American communities. Cajete (1994:137,168) highlights the essential role of story in human experience and learning, and posits that story is a source of content and methodology for indigenous education. Deloria (1997) explains the differences between the oral traditions of tribal peoples and western science, and discusses how the latter has tended to deny the validity of traditional knowledge that is contained and produced within stories (§2.3.2, §3.1.1). Bastien (2004) deals specifically with aspects of Niitsitapi oral tradition, including the cultural practice of story-telling as a means of encapsulating and sharing traditional Niitsitapi knowledge. None of these sources, however, address the issue of how personal names might function as part of cultural oral tradition.
In this regard, Basso (1996) provides valuable and fascinating insight into the role of place names and the stories surrounding them, in Apache oral tradition. Basso’s (1996) research shows that Apache place names are embedded with narratives that reflect many different aspects of Apache cultural knowledge. This knowledge can thus be imparted to people through the use of the names; a practice that is referred to as “speaking with names” (Basso 1996:80). Basso (1996:100) observes that “speaking with names” accomplishes a variety of social functions, including: producing a mental image of a specific geographic location;
evoking prior texts, such as historical tales and sagas; affirming that value and validity of traditional moral precepts; displaying tactful and courageous attention to aspects of both
34 positive and negative face; conveying feelings of concern and personal support; offering practical advice for dealing with troubling personal circumstances; transforming distressing thoughts into more optimistic and hopeful ones; and healing wounded spirits. Thus, according to Basso (1996:101), “when Apache people see fit to speak with place names, a vital part of their tribal heritage seems to speak to them as well”. The discussion in §4.1 of this dissertation will show how Niitsitapi personal names, through their narrative qualities, convey various elements of traditional Niitsitapi sociocultural knowledge, and thus play a central role in Niitsitapi oral tradition.
The discussion so far in this chapter has comprised a survey of existing written literature that is pertinent to this research project, and which therefore places the study into its appropriate scholarly context. This review has highlighted an enormous gap in the literature concerning Native American personal names, in general, and Niitsitapi personal names, in particular (§2.4, §,2.4.1). Whilst I have consulted this body of literature in order to familiarise myself with the scholarly discourse pertaining to the fields of onomastics, ethnolinguistics, and ethnoscience, all of which intersect with the current research, I must emphasise that the project has been informed and guided primarily by a vast body of Niitsitapi oral literature, which has been built up throughout the course of Niitsitapi history. This oral literature comprises an ongoing discourse, within the Kanai community, around the topic of personal names, which takes place in a wide variety of contexts in everyday life on the Reserve;
including, for instance, in casual conversations, exchanges between teachers and students in the classroom, interviews and discussions with elders, in sacred ceremonies, and in public settings where people talk about their names, or transfer names in naming ceremonies. From an exclusively Niitsitapi perspective, then, there is no gap in the knowledge system at all. The following extracts from Zaharia & Fox (1995(2): 69, 35; 2003(4): 75) provide a good illustration of the nature of the Niitsitapi oral literature on personal naming:
My name Aawohkitopi [‘Rode The Enemy’s Horse’] was given to me in honour of one of our warriors. During one of the battles between the Crow and Kainai, Awohkitopi [sic] threw a Crow off his horse, jumped onto the horse and rode it back to Kainaissksahkoyi with a great feeling of joy and accomplishment.
35 Ohkotoksiisahkomaapi [‘Rocky Boy’] was the name given to me by Black Rabbit…I was born on November 26, 1919 in a tent near the elevators in Cardston. My Dad was hauling grain and we were wintering there. Apparently I was sickly at first. I probably caught cold at my birth. After Black Rabbit gave me my name I got better and here I am still around.
Iitsstsinnimaakii [Captures Down Woman] was given to me by my grandfather, Isskssiinaopakstooki, in memory of one of A’sipiiksi Goodstriker’s exploits on the hunt/warpath, apparently. One day while the Bloods were on the warpath against the Assiniboines, A’sipiiksi was sent ahead to scout his party. In one of the lodges he found an Assiniboine asleep.
He jumped on him and grabbed him by the neck. He took away a big knife from him. Just as he was ready to stab him one of his companions asked him to spare the Assiniboine’s life. Just then he found out that he had almost killed an old Assiniboine woman.
The Niitsitapi oral literature on personal names and naming practices is, in essence, what this entire research project is all about; in that the methodology which I have adopted in carrying out the study, and the resulting content of this dissertation, has been heavily influenced and informed by the local knowledge system within which I have worked. The next chapter, for instance, sets out how I have engaged with the Niitsitapi oral discourse, in a variety of social situations, as a means of learning about Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices; and Chapter 4 constitutes a comprehensive review of the oral literature, through which I explain what I have learned through my participation in the local discourse around names.
My acknowledgement of the Niitsitapi oral literature as the main source of reference for the current research emphasises the crucial role of Niitsitapi knowledge systems in providing the basis for furnishing a true ethnographic account of Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices; that is, one which is articulated from a Niitsitapi perspective, and which leads to an understanding of the real meaning and functions of names in Niitsitapi society (§1.1). In fact, had I not been able to access the oral literature, it would probably have been impossible to carry out this study with any measure of success at all. Furthermore, this approach can be seen as an attempt to bring two very different types of literature, that is, oral versus written, and two very different, sometimes opposing, knowledge systems, that is, western-oriented
36 versus traditional Niitsitapi, together in dialogue around the subject of names, to see what each one might learn from the other. Some additional thoughts on this issue are shared in Chapter 5.