The History and Culture of the Spirit Lake Dakota
The Sounds of the Pond Alphabet
A sounds as A in Far. B sounds as B in But. C sounds as CH in Chest. D sounds as D in Deed. E sounds as A as in Say. G sounds a low guttural. H sounds as H in He.
I sounds as E in Say J sounds as Si in Hostler K sounds as K in Key. M sounds as M in Me. N sounds as N in Neat. O sounds as O in Go. K indescribable.
R high guttural S sounds as S in Sea T sounds as T in Tea. U sounds as OO in Moon.
W sounds W as in We. X sounds as Sh in Sheet Y sounds as Y in yeast.
Z sounds as Z in Zeta. (Pond 1893) These are the original letters and sounds they represented. Naturally they didn’t hear the other sounds that were present.
It didn’t take long before Maza Rda mani (Walking Bell – Ringer) became the very first Dakota to read and write his own name. (In modern spelling of Maza Hda Mani a dot above the “H” for a guttural sound. Mazaḣdamani decided the next winter to become a Christian. A Mister Gavin was asking for a verb and Madame La Chapelle of Prairie du Chien replied “If you can find a verb in the Dakota, you are a smart man”. Verbs are incorporated in the conjugation. Example “U” (OO like Moon in English). Wau = I come, Yau = you come, Upi = they come, Yaupi = you all come, Unkupi = we come.
One after another the men learned to read and write in Dakota. Shortly they asked for books to read. The brothers prepared lessons for them with paper and pencil as there weren’t any books yet. The Reverends Williamson and Riggs and their families now arrived to help with the Christian and language work. Under the tutorship of Samuel Pond the new helpers advanced in their Dakota language studies. Reverend Riggs gave a manuscript to Gideon Pond who revised it and published it under the title “Joseph Oyakapi Kin” (The words of Joseph) to be the first book in the hands of the Dakota. The same year 1837 they worked on some Bible translations into Dakota language. Due to repeated Ojibway raids killing many of their Dakota friends the evangelists moved west up the Minnesota River to Lac qui Parle near present day Montevideo, Minnesota. Now they were under the protection of the French – Dakota Indian fur trader named Joseph Renville named Psincinca (Arrow Head a water plant) who now advanced their language skills. During the winter of 1837 and 1838 Rev, Riggs would read from his French Bible to Joseph Renville who understood French and would translate the verse into Dakota Then the verse was copied into the Dakota language by Dr. Williamson and the Ponds.
In April 1838 Samuel Pond left to go with a Dakota band on their spring Deer Hunt so he could learn more of the language and customs. What he learned was published in his book “The Dakota or Sioux as they were in 1834”. During the hunt one group separated and were discovered all killed by the Ojibway. Samuel now learned more of the customs as he helped bury the dead men, women, and children Their deaths were revenged two years later. Samuel in 1836 Samuel again accompanied 300 Dakota on the Fall Hunt this time in October. Prior to this the Dakota sole all their land east of the Mississippi River in 1837.
By July 1838 the missionaries worked with WamdiOkiye (Helping Eagle), they worked on more of the Bible verses. By 1840 Gedeon produced a small book of Dakota grammar. 1842 the Gospels of Luke and John were finished. Due to poor hunting the Dakota started to move west up along the Minnesota River along with the missionary families. This time to Lac qui (near present day Montevideo. MN). In 1840 Rev. Huggins left the group and traveled west to Fort Pierre to ascertain if the Lakota dialect compared to the Dakota. He learned that it was comparable. (Reverend Huggins was guided to Fort Pierre by a nephew of Chief Thunder Face (Itewakinyan). The Redfox family of Tokio, ND are descendants of this guide). By 1851 came the Treaties and the war.
To be continued.
