English

meadowlark (Western meadowlark)

Arapaho

cooxúcenéíhii

Meadowlarks and the Arapaho

The meadowlark, along with the crow, is believed to be able to talk Arapaho. Moreover, he is believed to typically say mocking and dirty things. One thing it is supposed to say is: hinenitee ceitokusee = ‘a person is crawling toward me’ (Kroeber, The Arapaho, p. 317-18) Another thing it says is: ‘go, cook!’ which would be something like neecis, bii3ihi! (Hilger, p. 42).

A ceremony practiced until recently with young children was the meadowlark ceremony. Either the actual meat of the meadowlark or else meadowlark eggs were fed to a young child on four consecutive days, accompanied by certain prayers. This was done so that the child would grow up to be a good speaker and speech-maker. It was done for both men and women, and at least one woman and one man (both in their sixties) are alive today who underwent this ceremony. The fact that they did so is common knowledge, and both are indeed very talkative, with this being attributed by their relatives to the ceremony.

The final part of this name means ‘the one who does...’