Chiefs who had a beef
QUESTION Were the names of famous Native American chiefs such as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse genuine or given to them by the American Press?
Native american names were badly translated into english in the 19th century. they could not speak english, so used the Plains sign language to communicate with white people and other tribes. these signs gave only a general indication of meaning, so the subtle nuances in names were lost.
White scouts and interpreters working for the U.S. military were seldom fluent in the languages they were supposed to translate, so errors were made. even the traders and other white people who lived among the tribes frequently understood less than they imagined.
in addition, Native americans could have more than one name or change it after an important event, such as performing a brave deed in battle or after receiving a spiritual vision. Sitting Bull was a bad translation of
Tatanka Iyotake, which means Bull that Remains or the Remaining Bull. the sign language gesture for remain and sit are the same, hence the mistranslation. He was also known as Hunkeshni, which means Slow.
Red Cloud’s name Mahpiya Luta or Scarlet Cloud refers to an unusual crimson cloud formation in the sky at the time of his birth, which was seen as a message from the spirit world.
Crazy Horse’s name of Tashunka Witko really means His Horse is Crazy. as an infant, he was called among the trees, Curly and Light Hair. His father then gave the young warrior his own name in order to transfer its protective spiritual power.
a Lakota chief known to the military as Young Man afraid Of His Horses was really known as the more fearsome even His Horse Causes Fear (to his enemies).
the american Press based its reports on information from the army, traders, settlers, prospectors, scouts and hunters, who used poorly translated names and had scant regard for accuracy. these names have continued in use and are even used by modern Native americans.
David Rayner, Canterbury, Kent.
QUESTION Why do starlings mimic other birds?
StaRLiNgS possess a rich repertoire of calls and songs composed of whistles, clicks, rattles, snarls and screeches.
in addition, they copy the sounds of other birds and animals, including human speech, dogs barking and even machinery. these sounds are woven into their repertoire to create a unique song.
Pliny reported individual birds speaking in greek and Latin that ‘ practised diligently and spoke new phrases every day, in still longer sentences’. Wolfgang amadeus Mozart kept a starling as a pet and was delighted by the bird’s talents.
Mimicry in birds is hotly debated. Many ornithologists do not like the term and prefer to refer to vocal appropriation.
a tentative consensus has coalesced around the idea that selection has favoured the ability for birds, especially males, that are able to increase their vocal repertoire to attract a mate and intimidate rivals.
this tends to result in an increasingly large and diverse song repertoire within the limits imposed by the need for species recognition and by the capacity of the bird to memorise and vocalise sounds.
David Sykes, Oxford.
QUESTION Why were 16 U.S. soldiers hanged at Shepton Mallet jail during World War II?
SHePtON Mallet jail in Somerset was used as an american military prison from 1942 to 1945. By 1944, there were more than 750 inmates. in total, 18 soldiers were executed at Shepton Mallet — 16 by hanging and two by firing squad.
Nine were executed for murder, six for rape and three for both offences.
Before it closed in 2013, Shepton Mallet was the oldest working jail in Britain. it had been established in 1625 to comply with the 1610 Bridewell act of James i requiring that every county have a jail.
in 1773, John Howard — whose name was later adopted by the Howard League for Penal Reform — inspected Shepton Mallet and described ‘ emaciated, dejected’ inmates ‘expiring on the floors, in loathsome cells of pestilential fevers and the confluent smallpox’.
the prison was turned over to British military use in October 1939. Between mid-1942 and September 1945, it became the 6833rd guardhouse Overhead Detachment and later the Headquarters 2912th Disciplinary training Centre — aPO 508 United States army, staffed by american military personnel.
During the war, american service personnel in Britain were convicted of 26 murders, 31 cases of manslaughter, 22 attempted murders and 400 sexual offences, including 126 rapes.
the hangings were carried out by British hangmen, including albert Pierrepoint and his uncle thomas, alex Riley and Herbert Morris.
though the U.S. military was 90 per cent white, ten of the 18 men executed were black and three were Hispanic.
the British hangmen hated the american practice of reading out the details of the offence and sentence to the condemned man as he stood on the trap door, then allowing him to make a final statement. this process could take up to six minutes while under the British system it took less than 20 seconds to execute a man.
Private aniceto Martinez, a 24-year-old Hispanic soldier, was the last person to be executed in Britain for the crime of rape. He was hanged on June 15, 1945, for the rape of a 75-year-old in her home in Rugeley, Staffs.
the remains of american prisoners executed at Shepton Mallet were interred in unmarked graves at Plot X in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, which is also known as the London Necropolis.
in 1949, the 18 bodies were exhumed. the remains of one were repatriated while the remaining 17 were reburied in Plot e, which was reserved for the ‘dishonoured dead’, at Oise- aisne american Cemetery and Memorial in France.
Charles Wilson, Wells, Somerset.