Odd-Ball Picture of the Day

I'd rather fly on that plane than quench the thirst of a snake.

 

Actually, Navajos (and the Navajo language) come from Alaska or Canada.
"The Navajo are Athabascan speakers, closely related to the Apache and more distantly to other Athabascan-speaking peoples in Alaska and Canada. They are relative newcomers to the Southwest, having migrated into the region ca. AD 1400 or perhaps somewhat earlier. " https://indianartsandculture.org/na...can speakers,1400 or perhaps somewhat earlier.

And purely as to the Athabascan language, take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabaskan_languages

Here's an interesting fact: The Athabascan language was so well developed, had survived so completely, and was so unknown at the time, that Navajo speakers were used in the Pacific Theater by the United States during WWII as "code talkers", a language the Japanese could not understand or learn. "Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions and Marine parachute units, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native language a code that the Japanese never broke." https://www.history.navy.mil/conten...title-list-alphabetically/n/code-talkers.html "Throughout the war, the Japanese were repeatedly baffled and infuriated by these seemingly inhuman sounds. They conformed to no linguistic system known to the Japanese." https://www.studentsofhistory.com/t...ar, the Japanese,system known to the Japanese.

In the early 70's, during law school, I lived for a summer on the Navajo reservation, in Tuba City, clerking in the Navajo Legal Services office. I got a chance to meet several of the code talkers there. Much later, I represented the Alaska Native Corporation created for Athabascans, which is more or less centered in Fairbanks, in the Interior of Alaska. Athabascan is widely spoken there too. In fact, all Native languages are broadly spoken throughout Alaska in the Native community.

 

Those code talkers were real men who gave all to a country they owed nothing.

Much respect.

 

Just to add to it, I knew many of the Athabaskan people from the Interior when I lived there, that were smoke jumpers fighting fires in the Lower 48. They were in camps with many of the Navajo fire fighters and would hang out around the campfire talking. They said they could get the gist of what the Navajo were talking about and could understand about 50% of the words. Pretty impressive for languages separated by that much distance and time.

 

Cool, thanks for sharing…

I thought I remembered their stating if their immigration to the SW…. Thought it was east… guess it was north..


I’m familiar with the Code Talkers… neat that you got to spend time there so long ago…


How close are the Alaskan languages to Dine? Could you communicate with both Alaskans and Navajo alike? I know that much of South America tribes speaks Quechua and can communicate across borders and tribes…

Cherokee is an Iroquoian language but they try to claim our tribal ancestors aren’t connected… that’s a political motivated thing that goes back to Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone days and the Gov claim that KY was empty and ripe for expansion… there were actually 34 documented tribes there iirc before euros moved in and most of the tribes accepted them and lived and mixed… but like evil Indiana and most of the Midwest all have been erased from history…


while you’re here I’ve been meaning to ask you and @kenessex

Have you read any of Peter Jenkins’ books? “Looking for Alaska” or his two Walking Across America stories? He did those walks in the 70s… maybe you read them then… his Alaska one was interesting and involved many of the tribes… all are non fiction stories of his adventures

and the “Golden Spruce” by John Vaillant which is about a special tree on an Alaskan Island island that was cut down and tribes traumatized by it and gives you a glimpse into the old and new tribal ways…

 

Why do you keep posting tiny pics, that don't enlarge, and when I zoom in I can't read it cuz the text gets too blurry?

 

I gotchu...

 

@britx303 you know you're too old to wear your kilt in public when...

 

They just need hats hold up I’ll draw another Scottish version