It is well known that the names of Indians are almost always
connotive, and particularly that they generally refer to some animal,
predicating often some attribute or position of that animal. Such
names readily admit of being expressed in sign language, but there may
be sometimes a confusion between the sign expressing the animal which
is taken as a name-totem, and the sign used, not to designate that
animal, but as a proper name. A curious device to differentiate proper
names was observed as resorted to by a Brule Dakota. After making the
sign of the animal he passed his index forward from the mouth in a
direct line, and explained it orally as "that is his name," i.e., the
name of the person referred to. This approach to a grammatic division
of substantives maybe correlated with the mode in which many tribes,
especially the Dakotas, designate names in their pictographs, i.e.,
by a line from the mouth of the figure drawn representing a man to the
animal, also drawn with proper color or position. Fig. 150 thus
shows the name of Shun-ka Luta, Red Dog, an Ogallalla chief, drawn
by himself. The shading of the dog by vertical lines is designed to
represent red, or _gules_, according to the heraldic scheme of colors,
which is used in other parts of this paper where it seemed useful to
designate particular colors. The writer possesses in painted robes
many examples in which lines are drawn from the mouth to a name-totem.
[Illustration: Fig. 150.]
It would be interesting to dwell more than is now allowed upon the
peculiar objectiveness of Indian proper names with the result, if not
the intention, that they can all be signified in gesture, whereas the
best sign-talker among deaf-mutes is unable to translate the proper
names occurring in his speech or narrative and, necessarily ceasing
signs, resorts to the dactylic alphabet. Indians are generally named
at first according to a clan or totemic system, but later in life
often acquire a new name or perhaps several names in succession from
some exploit or adventure. Frequently a sobriquet is given by no
means complimentary. All of the subsequently acquired, as well as
the original names, are connected with material objects or with
substantive actions so as to be expressible in a graphic picture, and,
therefore, in a pictorial sign. The determination to use names of this
connotive character is shown by the objective translation, whenever
possible, of those European names which it became necessary to
introduce into their speech. William Penn was called "Onas," that
being the word for feather-quill in the Mohawk dialect. The name
of the second French governor of Canada was "Montmagny" which was
translated by the Iroquois "Onontio"--"Great Mountain," and becoming
associated with the title, has been applied to all successive Canadian
governors, though the origin being generally forgotten, it has been
considered as a metaphorical compliment. It is also said that Governor
Fletcher was not named by the Iroquois "Cajenquiragoe," "the great
swift arrow," because of his speedy arrival at a critical time,
but because they had somehow been informed of the etymology of his
name--"arrow maker" (_Fr. flechier_).