Part II: “Mom, how do you say that?”

By Lee Longhorn

A word that my mom cannot pronounce is the word for knife in the Creek language. I can’t even write it. My mom, if you recall, is where I get the bulk of my tribes. As a kid and even a young adult, my mom would not only teach me what Creek she knew, but also Shawnee. It was nothing big, but just words, mostly animals, that she remembered from when she was a part of that side of the family.

I definitely won’t teach my kids how my dad taught me. The only time he really taught me Shawnee was after downing a couple of glasses of bourbon and coke. I would have liked to have learned more Shawnee, but come on, I was more uncomfortable seeing my dad kill that bottle of liquor. Overall, lessons were learned.

So, now I wonder how I would teach a language to my children one day. Do I teach them more than one? All that I know? Or do I keep it away from them entirely?

“I said what?”

I was at the American Indian Journalism Institute this summer in South Dakota and my roommates were: one Cherokee, a Lakota, me and some Navajo guy. (Actually, the Navajo guy is now my editor.)

We were on assignment when my Lakota roommate, David, sneezed. I said, “Bless you.” He replied, “Ah-ho.” Now, to backtrack and give you a little language lesson, “Ah-ho” means thank you in the Kiowa language. It can also mean something like “scalp him” in a different context.

Also note that the Kiowa were in Oklahoma and Texas before Oklahoma became a state and they are headquartered in Anadarko, Okla. So I was shocked to hear this Oklahoma phrase said in, of all places, South Dakota.

I asked David if he knew what it meant and he said “No.” This surprised me a little. So I explained to him the translation and its different meanings depending on context. David said the word is commonly used after a prayer at powwows. Of course, I hear the same thing at powwows, which means that this Kiowa phrase is contributing to pan-Indian identity (don’t even get me started on my feelings toward that). So, if in 100 years and all the languages of the American Indian populations have died out (God, I hope not) then maybe “Ah-ho” will survive.

Lee Longhorn is a reporter at the Muscogee Nation News.