Amahuaca wife-beating sticks?

Q: I was on the museum website and I saw striped sticks of the Amahuaca tribe which were called "wife-beating sticks." What is that about? Why are they beating their wives?

A: I had to ask a friend of a friend to get this answer for you. The Amahuaca are a small tribe and very remote. She says "It was a ritual. The people believed bad things came from dark magic. If a woman was infertile, they would beat her with a sacred stick to drive out the bad magic. They also had special whips that the shaman would whip men in a ritual to make them stronger and drive away dark magic. This is what I hear from older people. Amahuaca still do many of our traditions but not these ones."

Hope that answers you question, have a good day!

Further reading:
Amahuaca language
Amazonian tribes

Gvlieliga

Q: What is the meaning and language of the word gvlieliga?

A:  It's Cherokee. It's a polite comment similar to the English phrase "you're welcome"-- something you say in response to "thank you." Literally it means "I'm glad," or "my pleasure."

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading:
Cherokee language
Cherokee alphabet
Cherokee tribe   

Pennacook Language

Q: Hello. Not sure if I have the right person. But I was wondering how you say grandmother,  Nana in Pennacook.

Thank you

A:  Unfortunately the Pennacook language was never recorded. They may have been speakers of the Abenaki and/or Wampanoag languages, or they may have spoken their own Algonquian dialect of which we have no record. The Abenaki word for "grandmother" is Nokemes (pronounced no-kuh-muss.) Hopefully that is close enough for your purposes.

Have a good day!

Further reading:
Abenaki language
Wampanoag language
Pennacook Indian tribe   

Muskogee Words

Q: Hello I'm learning to speak Muskogee. I'm trying to get back with my culture. I was wondering how you say "I love you" in Muskogee? Mvto!

A:  Hesci! "I love you" is "Ecenokecvyēt os" (pronounced ih-chih-no-kih-chuh-yeet ose.)

Have a good day!

Further reading:
Muskogee language
Creek Indians

Inuit Giants

Q: I read that according to Inuit legends, the first people of Nunavut, who lived there before the Inuit, were giants. Do you know whether there is any truth to this legend-- could prehistoric people like the Dorset culture have been giants, and could this be related to Northwest legends of Sasquatch?

A: Well, archaeology is a bit outside our wheelhouse, so I couldn't tell you with any authority how tall the Dorset people were in real life. However, one thing you should keep in mind is that back then, Inuit men were 5'2"-5'4" in height and Inuit women were almost all shorter than five feet. So "giant" may have been a relative term! Ordinary Plains Indian men would probably have looked like giants to the Inuit ancestors.

With that said, the Tuniit (giants) had many other supernatural qualities in Inuit legends. In some stories they could carry a walrus (which weighs more than a ton) or shapeshift into polar bears. So those would definitely not have been things the real-life Dorset people could have done no matter how tall they were! Either the Tuniit were not the Dorset people at all and were indeed mythological wilderness beings like Sasquatch, or else these legends were historical stories about the Dorset civilization which became changed and embellished over time to include supernatural elements.

Hope that is interesting to you, have a good day!

Further reading:

Inuit people
Sasquatch

Gitche Gumee

Q: I would like to know whether Gitche Gumee is a true Ojibwa name and if the popularly accepted translation is accurate.

A:  Thank you for writing. Yes, that is the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior. In the modern Ojibwe spelling system it is spelled Gichigami (pronounced gih-chih-guh-mih) and it literally means "big lake."

Hope that is what you were looking for. Have a good day!

Further reading:
Ojibwe language
Native American names in Longfellow's Hiawatha
Native American lakes   

Blackfoot word for wolf?

Q: Hi, on your Blackfoot vocabulary page you said the Blackfoot word for "wolf" is Omahkapi'si. But on another site I saw it is Makoyi. Which is correct?

A:  They both are correct. Omahkapi'si is the usual word for a wolf. But Makoyi, or Makoyiwa, is another word for Wolf that is often used in legends and traditional stories, or as an element of Blackfoot names. That is why, for example, the Blackfoot name that was given to Chief Poundmaker, Makoyi-koh-kin, is translated as "Wolf Thin Legs."

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading:
Blackfoot language
Blackfoot names
Blackfoot Indian tribe