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  7. FirstMeeting

FirstMeeting

Details
Title

First Meeting to Speak Wichita

Contributor

David S. Rood
Armik Mirzayan

Country

United States

Genre

Unspecified

Format

video/x-mpeg1
video/x-mpeg2
audio/x-wav
text/x-eaf+xml

Language

Wichita
English

Persistent Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/1839/00-0000-0000-001B-7E30-0

Description

Speakers were asked a number of questions about their experiences over the years; the idea was to get them thinking about events where Wichita would have been the language of choice. We begin talking about Camp Creek, an annual gathering of Wichita families for socializing and celebrating, and drift into other topics such as children's songs, religion, proper behavior, and various personal anecdotes. Most of the discussion was in English, despite repeated admonitions by the linguist to switch to Wichita. Stories which did not include any Wichita language have been excluded from the archived version of this video. Several of the contributions by Dru are excellent examples of code switching: the story is generally in English, but Wichita dialogue is reported in Wichita.

Description

Speakers of Wichita were gathered for a meal and a chance to "talk Wichita" with each other for about two hours. This session records the first meeting, in which the Linguist tries to stimulate conversation by asking a number of questions, most of which result in either long discussion in English or no responses. Only the successful questions (those which elicited some Wichita language data) and the resulting discussion are archived. There are some short monologues, and several songs with a discussion about them. The following are the topics of conversation as they come up on the video: David tries to get the conversation started by suggesting people talk about experiences at Camp Creek, a former (probably in the 1940s and 1950s) summer gathering place for Wichita families to camp and socialize. Those who went to Camp Creek tended not to be churchgoers. Doris refers to a recorded text from the 1960s that David had played for her earlier that day. The text (BP BP conversations) will also be available in the archive eventually. It was free conversation between two good friends, and included the passages to which Doris refers here. The speakers in the text had begun to discuss a Ghost Dance song, and one of them had complained that the use of “Our Father” and other references to the Christian God was inappropriate (presumably because those singing it were not Christians and it was not a Christian song). Doris asserts that the people who went to Camp Creek were extremely religious, and that the woman speaking on the tape was being inappropriately critical. Doris quotes the ‘our Father’ line in Wichita. Myles inquires more about the song, and says he knows it. Pearl also says she knows it, Myles encourages her to sing it but she demurs. With encouragement from Doris, Myles sings it. Pearl then thinks of another one, and sings that one. Doris reverts to her theme that despite what was said on the tape, the Camp Creek attendees were spiritual people. Pearl then goes back and translates the song she sang. Further discussion emphasizes that the songs were always about the Lord. David redirects the conversation to Dru, who had told him she had come prepared to tell a little story. It is a joke, told bilingually, first in Wichita and then in English. Then she goes on to describe a “Wichita boogey-man”, someone who regularly “teased” the young women. (“Teasing” is a complex division of relatives into two groups, those whom you can (and must, if possible) insult, and those who must be protected from insults. The relationship is transitive: if someone is insulting someone whom you are supposed to protect, you must protest. The insults are usually very personal and often sexual.) Dru describes(mostly in English) the way this man behaved, and others chime in with more stories about him. Dru then recalls another Camp Creek event where her mother arranged to have an old Pawnee woman pray for her daughter (Dru). This creates the opportunity to discuss the difference between the old and new ways of doing things, such as arranging for blessings and giving gifts. Pearl is then inspired to talk about the special properties of “lulu-ing,” performing the women’s war cry, and how that has been diluted in recent times. David interrupts to collect the appropriate vocabulary. Dru is then reminded of another story about her cousin, when a young child, accompanying her grandmother into the wilderness to help with the proper burial of the medicine bundle of a deceased relative, and how a “lulu” was heard to acknowledge the proper completion of the action. Myles speaks up with a story about himself as a young boy and a Camp Creek experience. One of his “teasing” relatives was confronted by a “non-teasing” relative over what she was doing to Myles, and their interactions strike everyone as funny. Shirley is then reminded of some behavior among the girls and young women involving reading magazine stories, and others offer parallel remarks. Since many of the stories involved men mistreating women, the speakers use the word “tite’es” about them. That prompts Doris and Pearl to comment on that as the only “cuss word” in the language. Pearl starts another topic but is sidetracked almost at once by Mary, the only non-speaker in the group, telling about an occasion when she “lulu”ed in private. Pearl teasingly calls her “Coyote”, though she translates the word as “fox”. A discussion of the term (k’ita:ks) follows, with input from Stuart, concluding that “coyote” is correct. Then Doris asks about another animal name, and they conclude it means ‘panther’. This reminds Dru of another song about an animal that she can’t identify. She sings it, and Pearl asserts that it’s about the buffalo having disappeared. David then reminds Myles of a song he has sung before, a children’s song about the mourning doves that supposedly warns against being too noisy. Myles sings it, translates it, and there is some discussion of it. Then Doris asks Gary about the “buzzard” song which everyone uses to tease him. Both Myles and Pearl sing it. Gary redirects the conversation to another story by Dru about her aunt and her grandmother. Part of this is hard to hear because people are rattling aluminum foil as they pack up the leftovers from the meal to take home. Eventually the noise subsides and Dru begins the story again, abbreviating the beginning. Dru uses a lot of code switching: the story is in English, but the characters speak Wichita when she quotes them. Even the woman who purports to have stopped understanding and speaking the language is quoted as if she had spoken Wichita, however. Shirley changes the subject with a short story about Doris helping her grandmother with the grocery shopping, and Doris adds some comments about the merchants of the time, including a little of the terminology for money.

Description

Speakers were asked a number of questions about their experiences over the years; the idea was to get them thinking about events where Wichita would have been the language of choice. We begin talking about Camp Creek, an annual gathering of Wichita families for socializing and celebrating, and drift into other topics such as children's songs, religion, proper behavior, and various personal anecdotes. Most of the discussion was in English, despite repeated admonitions by the linguist to switch to Wichita. Stories which did not include any Wichita language have been excluded from the archived version of this video. Several of the contributions by Dru are excellent examples of code switching: the story is generally in English, but Wichita dialogue is reported in Wichita.

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