NUMU TEKWAPUHA NOMENEEKATU NEWSLETTER April 2007 Vol. 10 Issue 2 The Language & Cultural Preservation Committee 1375 N.E. Cline Road, Elgin OK 73538-3086 www.comanchelanguage.org fax: 1-580-492-5119 e-mail: [email protected] Editor: Barbara Goodin

“Letter From The President” year for 15 new families and the first-year families will serve as mentors for the new Marvaweka Nvmvnvv tvasv nv families. This project proposal will be going naznvmvnvv, isv tvasv nv hazhaits3nvv to the General Council in April! Your support at the Council meeting is very We have been blessed with a fine group of important to getting it on the ballot so that young Nvmvnvv suk5 sik1 taa the Comanche people can determine if this Nvm6habin3nvv. These young families project will continue. If you have an have done a remarkable job of learning to organization or group that would like to hear read our language. They have begun the more about this project please contact the process of learning to speak Comanche. CLCPC. We can have some of the project This is a task that requires a huge amount of family members demonstrate what they have dedication and motivation, and it is my learned through this experience. belief that they are up to the task. VRA For those of you who have not heard of the RON RED ELK “Learning to Speak Comanche” Project, ______here is a brief description of it. !! NEW ADDRESS !! There were 15 families being served in this Please note that we have a new mailing Project and their task was to learn to read address, effectively immediately. We have a and write in Comanche. The objectives forwarding order in place at the post office, were: 1. The parents were to learn the but that will only be in effect for a short spelling system; 2. The parents were to learn time. After that time mail will be sent back to use the recording /play back device; 3. to the sender. Please make a notation for The parents were to play a wide variety of future use. Our e-mail address will remain sounds around their the same, as will our web site address. Our children as often as possible; 4. Once the new mailing address is: parents’ reading skills were achieved, then 1375 N.E. Cline Road, Elgin OK 73538. they were to read to their children; and 5. ______The parents started replacing English words with Comanche words on a regular basis. THE ICE STORM OF 2007 These words would be language used in The terrible ice storm of January 2007 their daily lives. The target family is one that paralyzed much of the country reared its with infants to six years old. By the way, ugly head in southwest , also. three infants were born during this project Fortunately we didn’t lose power, but many year. weren’t so lucky. Even though we were iced in, my computer gave me the means of The CLCPC is proposing another project communicating with others, some in the same boat, and some not. Our friend in life that are different or unique. Maybe you Hawaii, Dr. James Warson, e-mailed to ask can live in a very different manner and yet if we were okay. He recently suffered still be just as comfortable and fulfilled in damage during an earthquake in his area, so your life as anyone else. Maybe the life of he was well aware of the damage Mother the Comanche people of long ago is not so Nature is capable of inflicting. Another different than that of the people today. friend, Kerry Kennington, wrote to inquire Maybe the only real difference is the how we were, and I would like to share his language that is spoken. So learn the thoughts from that cold winter night. language of your ancestors. Speak the “Isn’t it amazing….when you think words that they spoke. Live as comfortable about how much more fortunate we are on a a life as they did. This is the way to honor cold icy night, living in houses with heating your ancestors. This is the way to continue a systems, than the Comanche were living in way of life that need not be lost. This is a teepees? Now, that seems obvious until you way to perpetuate the traditions and history consider -- what if the power goes out? of the Comanche people. Learn the The Comanche people had lived, for at language, and the Comanche people will least hundreds of years, without electrical live on to the end of time.” Well said, Kerry. power. Yet the Comanche people were While we were ice-bound I took the completely at home in freezing weather opportunity to update our web site, and in because they knew how to do it. They were reading it over, I began thinking of the just as comfortable in their wood-fire heated activities that the CLCPC has been involved kahne as anyone of us is in our gas or in over the years. I thought about the electrically heated home. In fact, because Immersion Camp we held at Indian they had for so long mastered the art of School in 1994. At that time we had many living in this environment, they had more of the elders with us who have since gone time to spend with their children. Not every on. hour of every day was required to eek out a One of the activities we did was a living because the process had been “naming ceremony” in which we received perfected. There was time to spend with the an Indian name if we didn’t already have young. one. Roderick “Dick” Red Elk was the elder This may explain why so many captive that I worked with, and he asked me to tell white children became loyal Comanche him some things about myself. After members. They went from a life of constant listening he gave me the name of Nanumu daily toil to a people who had a system of Weekitu – “One Who Searches For Her living in a balanced environment. This is Ancestors.” He named me that because of not to minimize the trauma that they would my work with genealogy and my search for have experienced during their abduction. my relatives. Dr. Alice Anderton spelled it But with time, and the instinct for survival, I for me and I wrote it down. I have that same suspect that they would realize that the piece of paper today. It got me wondering, average Comanche of that day was as how many other people received an Indian comfortable in their daily life as I am today. name that day? And how many still Even without the leather recliner and central remember it? If you were one of those, I’d heat. It was instead a buffalo robe and a love to hear from you. fire. Different, but just as effective. It’s very special that Roderick gave me So does this mean we should give up my Indian name. He was an elder that I these luxuries? No, of course not. But it greatly respected. All of the elders that we does give a sense that maybe there are other worked with during that era were quiet, ways to live. Maybe there are approaches to unassuming and respected by all of us who worked with them. It is sad that we can sleep it, dream it, and build future plans for never go back to that time when they were it. with us, that time is gone forever – like they ______are. But we can remember them, and we can honor them by continuing on this DOCUMENTARY journey that we began together – to preserve The Kiowa, who are our neighbors to the and keep our language alive. I think they north, our friends, and in many cases, our would be proud of us. relatives, have one of their own docu- ______menting their oral history and traditions. In a recent article in the Lawton Constitution THREE KINDS OF PEOPLE Donna Rowell was featured as a Kiowa filmmaker who is working to preserve her There are three kinds of people: tribe’s oral history before it is too late. Those that make things happen, You can learn more about this endeavor Those that watch things happen, by going to www.vanishinglink.com or And those that wonder what happened. www.emerginglinks.com. What kind are you? We wish Ms. Rowell much success in ______what must be a project of the heart. ______A SUCCESS STORY One of our tribal members in Hawaii, DORIS DUKE COLLECTION Dr. James Warson, wrote a while back and We have more interviews from the Doris said he would like to learn to say a prayer in Duke Collection from the University of Comanche. He was asked to give the Oklahoma. You can go online and see the invocation at a yearly conference he attends entire collection of Comanche interviews at: and had witnessed others do the same in http://digital.libraries.ou.edu.whc.duke/. their native language. I gave him some JOE ATTOCKNIE INTERVIEW suggestions and he studied diligently, and June 9, 1969 this is what I heard from his recently: (*Background information: Joe Attocknie “ZOOOWWWWEEEE! I did it! I just stood was born September 11, 1911, near , up, opened my mouth, and out it came. It Oklahoma. He has lived in this area all of must have been good, because I had people his life.) come up to me afterward and say how I was fortunate in learning (about impressed they were! Now you can tell the ) by living with and being raised ones who complain about the difficulty of by my Grandmother Quer-her-bitty, which the language, “If a 65 your old man on an means “arise to capture.” She was a island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean Comanche from the Rooteater band of with only books, CDs and DVDs is Comanche. After she passed away I learned relearning his language, you can too.” It more from my father, Albert Attocknie, who was a great experience yesterday, and I was was a Rooteater Comanche from both sides, really proud. Jim.” his father and mother, which makes me a ______Rooteater Comanche. I was given the name Joseph Attocknie FOOD FOR THOUGHT from my father, and was baptized as Joseph An organization succeeds, not because it Attocknie. I was also given the name Pah-e is big, or because it is long established, but Tuh-uh-yah from my father. Pah-e is the because there are people in it who live it, water and Tuh-uh-yah is a fear of water, which is the name he gave me, naming me after a Rooteater Comanche of still further Comanches did not Sun Dance, or maybe back. Pah-e Tuh-uh-yah was a Comanche of just tried it one time. Nye, Wallace, Hobel about the age of one of our great-great- and, I believe, Wright have said that. Which grandfathers, Ten Bears. may not be a fair way to judge their Ten Bears was the grandfather of Quer- knowledge of the Comanche tribe’s past. Her-Bitty, who raised me. She raised me Maybe we have corrected an error here, about the way Ten Bears raised her because but the Comanche have naturally been she had lost her mother when she was still reluctant to go find their past. For one thing, an infant. they resent somebody else finding out Ten Bears, their mother’s father, raised something we know among ourselves. And both her and her older brother, Cheevers. Comanches don’t trust the purpose of people You will find reference to him in various coming to talk to them. They (Comanches) books on Comanches. went through the pretense of talking to I have always felt very fortunate in that I people doing research on the Comanche (but was in the position where I could learn first they) just gave them a token amount of hand, many things and many practices of the information and kept most of it to Comanches, and also much of their music themselves. because my grandmother was very musical. I know people will come around and She loved to sing. And almost every song pay, offer payment of different kinds, that she sang, there was usually a little sometimes good, and sometimes maybe comment – a little story along with it. When pretend to offer friendship in order to learn she (would sing), it would remind her of an something about the Comanches. But the incident that took place way back, an Comanches have long been on the alert for incident would impress her in the way that something like that. So efforts to research the music would remind her. Comanches have actually not had enough I asked my grandmother one time about success to present a true picture of the what the people worshiped before they Comanche. adopted the Christian religion, which she done, probably about 1890 or 1895, but ABOUT THE SUN DANCE before 1900. She readily told me about it. Now this Sun ritual, or you might say We worshiped the Sun, we were sun Sun Dance, some books said only one time worshipers. I am quite convinced that the has the Comanches tried, and that it (the Sun Sun Worship has not altogether died away Dance) was something they didn’t do. But or been forgotten among the Comanches. the one that they refer to, I believe, took We still, to this day of 1969, we still take place down on the north fork of the Red oaths. Oaths are still made to the sun, River, just before it enters into the Red placing the hand on the Bible and raising the River on the west side of the creek. They right hand. had Sun Dance there just before they went Someone will come up to me and seem into the Texas Panhandle. I believe White to be an authority on Comanches. Maybe Eagle and led this expedition they have done research. I always try to find into the Texas Panhandle. Not too much out just how much they have found out success in their mission, but they had a large about the Comanches. One of the questions group of people to go there. It turned out to that I bring up to test (their) knowledge of be an intertribal affair but the Sun Dance, the Comanche is to ask about our Sun Dance close to Red River, was the Comanche rituals. People that seem to have done a lot affair. of research and found out a lot about the This is the Sun Dance people usually Comanche have put down on paper that refer to, the interpreters who would come around pretending friendship. But actually which is Daughter of the Sky, or you might they had to work for someone who would say Straight Over-head Sky. Daughter of pay them, which was the Army. And they the Sky was the name of this woman. She would pass on information just as fast as was a member of the No-Yu-Ka or the they could to the military authorities. Wandering band of the Comanche. So the Army knew about that Sun Dance I am going to show you how deeply the down on Red River. Now that was just one, Comanches worshipped the sun. We have one that (was written in) the books. But Sun Dance songs still that we know. We besides that, we had other Sun Dance have so far seen no need to go into that, leaders that would Sun Dance in different although we know the songs and I believe parts of the country. that I have recorded as many of them as I One they had that escaped the notice of could. Comanche songs, they have the interpreters, (and) of course the military Comanche words. authorities, took place about three miles The general plan or practice of these Sun straight west of Post Field, there at Fort Sill. Dance leaders would be dance by Somehow the people didn’t (notice), and themselves in a lodge prepared by somebody that was fairly recently. that wanted a prediction and forecast, which I have seen some of the dancers that is the main reason for the Comanche Sun took part in that dance, some of my relatives Dance ritual. Not to heal, not for war took part. Another Sun Dance took place dances, not for any purpose other than to fairly recently, toward the end of the foretell the future. Foretell events that have reservation days. not taken place yet. East of Anadarko, there is a place called People would lose, or have overdue Indian City. It was pointed out to my father relatives or sons that went off to enemy where they had these Sun Dances. These country or dangerous countries. They would were the Honeyeater Comanches that had call upon the Sun Priests, bring them gifts the Sun Dances there. and tobacco and then ask them to locate or Another Sun Dance leader we had was tell them something about their overdue more known than most other Comanches. loved ones. This is the way everyone that I He was a (Comanche word) which is “Birds have mentioned so far, Bird’s Head, Goes of the Head.” One of his descendants, I To See His Son and Daughter of the Sky, believe it was an adopted son, and I say he they all practice reading the future by calling was adopted because he was a Mexican upon the sun to give them information. captive, died recently. His name was One of the last Sun Dances put on took Semeno. He became an Indian doctor, a place just about a mile and a half northeast medicine man, later on in life. We also have of the old fort (Fort Sill). There on Cache another one who has relatives living now, Creek and Medicine Bottom (*he may have Toh-Sah Koh-noh-e. Means the inside, the been referring to Medicine Bluff) there at lining or inside of an object. His relatives Fort Sill. A group of young men, including living today probably know about their some of my relatives (it got pretty close to grandfather who held Sun Dances. my family there), called upon the leader. He Another Sun Dance leader who had Sun was going to hold his Sun Dance ritual there Dances was Goes To See His Son. Several at this Comanche Village on the east side of of the books on Comanches refer to him Cache Creek and Medicine Bottom there at because he was a fairly well known Fort Sill. Comanche. They had made preparations. One thing Now still anther Sun Dance leader was a must be made clear here. When you are woman. Too-Koo-Nah-Pheet-At-Peh-Tah, going to put on a Sun Dance, all of the Sun Dancers know how they were to dress, the head of the column. Although people which is down to the bare skin, except for a began to get uneasy, it was also seen that the breech cloth and a belt to hold up the breech Sun Dance lodge was built so that people cloth. And then the reed, the sage brush, the could see in, plainly see all over the lodge. reeds for the dancers. And a whistle about Also, the dancers were unarmed with no four or five inches long made from a bone, place to hide weapons on their person, being an eagle bone, the collar bone of an eagle. bare footed, no leggings, and nothing but a The singers at that time did not use the G-string under which to hide anything. big drum, but small hand drums, as we The fact that they had to dance and blow called them. And if it wasn’t agreeable (to whistles at the same time, they saw no need use a small drum) they might beat upon a to stop their dance because troops were raw hide, hard rawhide. approaching. They kept singing and Now the pole itself, the lodge itself, is dancing. usually stripped of all the branches and Now the Comanche Sun Dance, unlike stuck into the ground to form a circle. A some of the other Sun Dancers around, circular enclosure for the ritual. , I guess, , too, and the There would be no place to hide Poncas, practiced the Sun Dance where they anything, no place to hide weapons or stood stationary and danced from one place. anything that could be mistaken for a The Comanche, after starting a dance song, weapon on the person of the dancers or on dance toward the center pole and than back the lodge itself. to their starting point, at the wall of the The leader I am talking about is Paa lodge. When the song starts again they Tsukotubutu, which is Black Otter. This would start toward the pole again and dance took place sometimes in the 1780s. I have their way back at the start of each song. the exact date somewhere. This relative of They would stand stationary. mine made preparations to take part in the While they were dancing, the troops had Sun Dance at this time, because that was his gotten closer, maneuvered and surrounded group, you might say, his little close circle the Sun Dance Lodge, Black Otter’s Sun of friends that were going to take part. Dance Lodge. The Comanche dancers Being a member of that group, he made his thought there was no reason to stop dancing, plans and was talking about how he was being unarmed. going to take part. But his mother and The purpose of the Sun Dance, a high relatives interfered with him. sun ritual which would be to me like a High They told him that something’s not right, Mass or some of the American churches or there was some uneasiness, some little some other high religious ritual. But here reason they felt that he should not take part. these Comanches were, surrounded by what So, they delayed him, although he was might be mistaken for sightseers or people getting ready. He was going to go anyway, that came to watch the ritual. The but he delayed long enough that the dance Comanches could see that they were armed started. soldiers. The musicians arrived and started Then all at once, the soldiers began to singing their songs, and dancers began to fire at them, and shot them all down, just dance. After the dance had been going on, wiped them all out of there. One of the word got out that troops were coming up leaders, in fact it was Black Otter himself, Cache Creek toward (where) the dance was came to some time later. When he came to, going on. The troops were also pulling a big a white man sitting over him spoke to him. wagon. There was some animals, mules, It was Horace Jones, interpreter for the pulling a big wagon with a body of troops at military troops at Fort Sill. He told Black Otter to lay still, they had already killed him. PRODUCTS FOR SALE Black Otter realized that the rest of the dancers were laying there, all dead. It was Comanche Dictionary. Compiled entirely by Comanche people, this dictionary contains over 6,000 thought he was dead, too. So he just Comanche words with Comanche to English and discontinued his Sun Dances, and I believe English to Comanche sections. $30 plus $5 s&h. he became a user of peyote later on. Comanche Lessons, set #1. A set of four Comanche But this is just a little here that we will Lessons, complete with a word list for each lesson say about the Comanche’s worship of the and a CD. $20 plus $5 s&h. Picture Dictionary. 26 page Primer explains the sun and also the way in which they used the Comanche alphabet and sound of each letter. Sun Dance, not as a healing ritual but as a Includes a CD. $12 plus $3 s&h. ritual to foresee the coming events. Comanche Song Book. Collection of 116 songs ______written in Comanche with an English translation, plus a set of 3 CDs of the songs. $20 plus $5 s&h. Comanche Flash Cards Set. Three sets of 48 Flash DANA CHIBITTY INTERVIEW Cards each with simple Comanche words, October 7, 1967 accompanied by a CD. $12 plus $3 s&h for all three (Background Information: Dana Chibitty sets. was born in 1897 at Richard’s Spur. Her Comanche Language Tee-Shirts. Comanche Indian name is Tah-da-tas-I, which means language logo in full color on left chest. Available in solid red or royal blue. Children’s sizes small (6-8), “Real Little” in English. Her father was Pi- medium (10-12), and large (12-14), $10; Adult sizes kie-u (Comanches call it Pikauhu) and her small through XL $12; Adult sizes 2X and 3X $15. mother was Pa-ha (Pet-stu-co-ni). Specify color and size when ordering and add $5 per Q: What kind of things did they sell at the shirt s&h. Red Store? Authentic Handmade Comanche Dolls. Beautiful 20” soft bodied dolls, dressed in traditional clothing. DC: They sell groceries and dry goods, and Both girl and boy dolls available. $40 each plus $5 shoes and everything that a person needs. s&h. (Special orders only, allow 6-8 weeks On the northeast side was old Man Cox’s delivery.) store and on this side, on the southeast side Tote Bags. Navy with red trim. 16”x12”x5” with was Pascal’s Store. On the west side was back pocket. Front has the Comanche Language logo. $12 plus $5 s&h. the Lawrence Store, I don’t know what his Ball Caps. Royal blue with red bill and Language first name was. His boy’s name was Arthur Logo on front. $10 plus $5 s&h. Lawrence. Lapel Pins. 1 inch Cloisonne pin with colorful That’s three stores there, and everybody C.L.C.P.C. logo and “Numu Tekwapu” in center. $5 go there to get our money. includes s&h. COMING SOON! New lapel pins. I remember, too, that was the time the small pox killed a lot of people. I remember *For faster service, please send orders with it like a dream – there was a building just check or money order to: CLCPC Attn: east from that Pascal’s Store. East from that Barbara Goodin, 1375 N.E. Cline Road, Elgin building there was a lot of camps through OK 73538. Orders will be shipped the there, lots of Indian camps through there. following day, most by Priority Mail. Please They taken all their kids to have them include your e-mail address when ordering in vaccinated. My mama took us up there and case we need to contact you. If ordering I was crying, I was scared of it. (Later) I multiple items contact us first at was asking my husband, “Was that the time www.comanchelanguage.org, as we can usually ship more items less than quoted here. those people died from that smallpox?” and Attention Tribal Members: Please contact us he said, “Yes.” I was just a little girl, I before sending in your order, as we give wasn’t going to school when that happened, discounts to enrolled Comanches. I remember that.