All accepted norms among Indigenous
peoples are resident in language…it is not by happenstance,
then, that the leading Cree specialists on the Prairies, H.
Wolfart and F. Ahenakew should entitle their book The
Cree Language is our Identity: The La Ronge Lectures of
Sarah Whitecalf. Language enshrines people's lifeways
and values. Yet there is not a direct, one-to-one
relationship between language and what is culturally
valuable.
For example, the Tsu`u Tina language have no word for
wife, yet obviously wives are as common among them as among
other peoples. What is important is to see the way languages
reflects cultural values in the larger sense. It is not
whether or not one kind of word is used the same way in all
cases.
We note first of all that the Cree language does not
distinguish between the family, the tribe and the nation…the
single word used for "one family, one tribe, one bond, one
nation" is peyakôskan. ‘All in one family’ was ka
peyakoskânewihk, a notion deriving from the same root
that further indicates that it can be translated as ‘all in
one tribe’ or ‘all in one nation’ depending on the
context…in effect, everyone was interconnected. This
underlines the inherent connectedness of all social forms,
and clarifies that a nuclear family is never a central
feature of Algonquian-speaking peoples.
Rather, the Cree acknowledge that all those who
permanently live together under one roof are referred to as
mihcetowekiwin, that is, a cognate word that suggests
many living within one structure. One could extend this
argument by adding that there is no basic distinction
between different kinds of Cree people (i.e ‘Plains’ or
Woods,’ etc.), for the word nehiyaw can equally stand
for an aboriginal or indigenous person as it can stand for a
Cree person.
Moreover, in Cree, a formal affiliation, such as a
society or confederation is called mâmawinitowin, a
word which highlights the notion of amalgamation or
gathering people together for a purpose. This is the word
that is used by Cree-speakers to translate our word
community, thereby signaling that the notion we have of
community is not equivalent to the collective phrase- ‘the
people.’ It should be affirmed, then, that this word is
never used for a 'band' or a 'family.' Indeed, words now
used for nation, or nationality are all modern derivatives
of these original words and they represent a kind of second
order derivation from the original meanings.
It is in kinship that divisions dwell in the language.
Plains Cree kinship terms reflect the important divisions
recognized in the Cree kinship system, and identifying those
relations that are crucial to maintaining identity are
presented in the lists below. For example, by virtue of the
importance of the relationship there is a word for one's
brother's daughter, and one’s sister's daughter. The
significance of kinships can be gauged by the importance
imposed by identifying names for the relationship. This
generality is reflected in the stability of kin systems
among most Indigenous peoples. Thus, the following
statements by Driver apply equally to Algonquian, Siouan and
Athapaskan language groups. The first point relates to
marriage patterns. Favoured partners for marriage are
clearly identified through the dominance given cross-cousin
marriage. Note Driver’s depiction of this feature:
If anyone married his cross-cousin,
it would not be necessary to have any kinship terms for
in-laws because they would also be genetic (blood)
relatives. Such is actually the case in most of the
Eastern Subarctic. Special terms for in-laws do not
exist in the language. Wherever in-laws are thus lumped
with genetic relatives, we may suspect marriage or
former marriage of genetic relatives. All the kinship
terminologies of the Algonquians of the Plains have
features suggesting cross-cousin marriage. The same is
true of the Santee and Teton Dakota. All of these tribes
seem to have had cross-cousin marriage at some time in
the past when they were living farther east, where their
territories probably adjoined those of the Ojibwa and
Cree, who have continued to marry cross cousins down to
the present time" (Driver 229).
He follows this up with two other analyses
that are crucial for understanding Indigenous marriage:
In still other languages, there are three separate
terms for each of the relatives; this is labelled
"bifurcate collateral terminology", to emphasize the
fact that the two forks of one’s ancestry are
distinguished as well as the lineal from the collateral.
In still other languages, there is once word for both
‘mother’ and ‘mother’s sister,’ and a second word for
‘father’s sister’; this is called "bifurcate merging",
because it distinguishes both ancestral forks but merges
the mother and the mother’s sister on one fork"
(Driver 255).
…bifurcate collateral is the most frequent for the
continent as a whole … the inferences naturally drawn
from these facts is that bifurcate collateral is
probably the oldest type of mother-aunt classification
in aboriginal North America, or at least older than
bifurcate merging. After unilocal residence and
unilateral descent arose, bifurcate collateral seems to
have lost ground to bifurcate merging. The process of
change, however, was not abrupt; on the contrary, both
systems coexisted for a time during the transitional
period. After White contact, the process was reversed;
bifurcate merging lost ground to bifurcate collateral"
(Driver 259).
Second, he summarizes what we know about
some important issues of relationship among Indigenous
people in the region under consideration:
… there are a few language families
in which all or nearly all the member languages possess
the same mother-aunt classifications … the
Plains-Prairie Sioux are all bifurcate merging … another
example of a correlation between language family and
mother-aunt terminology is that of the Algonquians, most
of whom have bifurcate collateral terminology. The
historical inference from these facts is that the older
variant among the Algonquians is bifurcate collateral,
and that those tribes which later contacted Sioux and
Iroquois acquired a more sedentary economy, unilateral
decent, or some other cultural feature which encouraged
the shift to bifurcate merging terminology. In such
cases, the classification for mothers and aunts may be
acquired by contact with languages of another family,
even though the words themselves are not transferred.
(Driver 261)
We can conclude, then, that the linguistic basis of
relational law reflects as continuing a set of stable
relationships as we are likely to find among tribal peoples,
perhaps among any peoples. Indeed, the main lines of these
relationships have guided marriage systems for centuries as
near as we can tell. These stable relationships were and are
operative in the local region of the three language groups
under consideration here.
Let us examine further the meaning of connection as
implied by the direct reference of kin systems in language.
For example, a more detailed linguistic shaping of the data
illustrates the distinctive meaning of 'all my relations'
found among the Indigenous peoples, and hence reflects
something of what ahs been identified as Nature's Law. We
will utilize three language examples from each of the
language families.
The Relational-Kinship System in Cree, (a widely spoken
and powerful Algonquian language in Canada), will function
as representative of the system as found in that linguistic
group:
Cree terminology reflects a rather sophisticated concept
of relationships. Strict taboos are also in place, as for
example, forbidding contact and/or personal relationships
between in-laws.
**MO: mother FA: Father WI:
Wife HU: Husband SI: Sister BR: Brother
DA: Daughter SO: Son MOSIDA: "mother’s sister’s
daughter" EGO: the point of view. |
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"my second cousin" (male says male)
nîscas; (male says female) nîcimos |
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MOSIHU n/a |
MOSIDA "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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MOSI "my aunt" nitosis
"my mother’s sister" nimamasis maternal aunt,
nimamasis |
MOSISO "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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MOMO "my grandmother" nohkôm |
MOBRWI n/a |
MOBRDA "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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MOFA "my grandfather" nimosôm |
MOBR "my mother’s brother"
nisis |
MOBRSO "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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WIMO "my mother-in-law"
nisikos |
WIBR "my brother-in-law"
nîstâw |
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WIFA "my father-in-law" nisis |
WISI "my sister-in-law" nîtim |
SOWI "my daughter-in-law"
ninahâkaniskwem; ninahâhkisîm |
SOSO "my great grandson" nôsisim
nitânskotapân |
|
MO "my mother" nikâwiy |
WI "my wife" nîwah |
SO "my son" nikosis |
SODA "my great-granddaughter" nôsisim |
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"EGO" |
DA "my daughter" nitânis |
DASO "my great grandson" nôsisim nitânskotapân |
|
FA "my father" nohtâwiy |
SI "my sister" nîtisân |
DAHU "my son in law" nahâhkis |
DADA "my great-granddaughter" nôsisim |
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SIHU "my brother-in-law" nîstâw |
SIDA "my sister’s daughter" nistim
"my niece" nitânisihkawin (men say my sister’s
daughter, nistim; women say my sister’s daughter,
nitôsimiskwem) |
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MOMO "my grandmother" nohkôm |
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BR "my brother" nîtisân |
SISO "my nephew" nicosim (women say
my brother’s son, nitikwatim; men say my sister’s
son, nitikwatim; women say my sister’s son,
nitôsim) |
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MOFA "my grandfather" nimosôm |
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BRWI "my brother’s wife" nîtim |
BRDA "my niece" nitânisihkawin (men
say my brother’s daughter, nitôsimiskwem) (women say
my brother’s daughter, nistim) |
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FASI "my father’s sister" nisikos
paternal aunt, osikosimâw |
FASISO "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
BRSO "my nephew" nicosim (men say my
brother’s son, nitôsim; nikosis) (women say my
brother’s son, nitikwatim). |
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FASIHU n/a |
FASIDA "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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FABR "my father’s brother" nôhkômis |
FABRSO "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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FABRWI n/a |
FABRDA "my first cousin" nistes;
nimis; niciwam; nîtim |
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