Apisa Tahlapi

"Lesson Five"
Okpulot Taha

tobi apa li na tachi ishpa tuk

I ate beans and you ate corn

"arrogance"

Up above you read our traditional expression for "spoon" is  isht abahcahkli  and you learn Christians decided  isht impa  is a "better" expression for spoon. As typical, Christians are ignorantly dead wrong, no surprise there.

Our traditional expression "isht abahcahkli" enjoys deep roots buried deep in time, hundreds of years, probably closer to a thousand years, maybe more. I will explain in a bit. Read again this Christian imposed expression for "spoon". This Christian explanation is so transparent and so insultingly arrogant. Christian missionary, Cyrus Byington, adds a lot of explanation to justify forcing his screwed up Christian worldview upon Choctaw. "Made of wood, horns of buffalo and cattle..." which is load of shit. Byington clearly and transparently is working at convincing readers he is right with historical gibberish, which is less than a half-truth. This expression "isht impa" interprets to "a thing of eating". This is it, nothing more, simply a thing of eating. What is this thing? Beats me.

Our traditional expression "isht abahchakli" stirs up centuries of tradition. When you perform good research to better understand what you are saying, you will discover four root words for "isht abahchakli". Our word "isht" you already know. This is "of this thing" or "derives from this thing". Easy to understand this word. Read carefully. Following I list some words in what I believe to be oldest to more recent, with "recent" being within the last five-hundred years or so. All are old, first word, though, is ancient.

• chakla  - an oyster.
• bahpo  - a type of pudding made by crushing fried corn kernals and peanuts.
• bahpuli  - actively crushing corn kernals, beans, peas and other foodstuffs.
• abaha  - a bowl shaped container in which foodstuff is "pounded" to a mush or a powder.

Our words "bahpo", "bahpuli" and "abaha" came about during the last five-hundred to one-thousand years evidenced by certain grammar rules being used to create our spoon word, "abahchakli". Watch as I take this word apart, all will make good common sense to you.

combined words:  abah   -   chakl   -   i

root words:   bahpo   -   chakla

An "a" is added in front of "bahpo" to indicate "a thing like this". Letters "po" are removed from "bahpo" to indicate "not actually this thing". Our word "chakla" has the last "a" replaced by "i" to indicate "an action of this thing".

Easy to understand, yes? Literal interpretation is:

"A bowl shaped thing which performs the action of an oyster".

Other words, a spoon. This is a "thing" with a bowl attached which performs the work of a traditional oyster spoon. This is very clear "abahchakli" came about during a time when Choctaw understood "oyster spoon" and, most likely, still used oyster shells as spoons. This dates "abahchakli" back at least five-hundred years, back before white man arrived. Odds are high this word dates back more than a thousand years but we have no way of knowing actually how far back in time.

We do know "isht impa" came about with this invasion of white Christians. This is NOT a traditional word, this is a word created by arrogant Christians who believed themselves minor gods who know what is best for Indians, like genocide.

Modern Choctaw speakers use "isht impa" to mean spoon. This insults our ancestors, this dishonors our tribe. This is a shameful word our ancestors never used. To honor our ancestors and our traditions, do not use "isht impa" when you speak. You understand why and you now know how to explain to others why you will not use Christian imposed words, "I will not dishonor our ancestors nor dishonor my family by using fabricated Christian words." To commit an act of dishonor is amongst the worst of offenses you can commit against our peoples.

My rant returns you to my point of performing excellent research of every word so you can begin to think more like Choctaw and like American Indians. You must become Indian to both understand our tongues and speak our tongues.

Some trivia, by the year 1800, white man exterminated all buffalo east of the Mississippi River, north to south. By 1800 there was not a single living buffalo east of the Mississippi and almost none west of the Mississippi. Choctaw born after 1800 never saw a living buffalo, not one. By the middle of 1800, buffalo were virtually extinct all across America from west coast to east coast and all points north and south. Where did Byington come up with this "spoons made of buffalo horns" bullshit? God's word I suppose, Christians never lie and all good Christians know Indians are habitual liars.

God told them so.

... sa banna  "I would like or I want".

Describe what you would like than add "sa banna at end, very easy! This expression "sa banna" must be last.

akak alwasha sa banna  "I would like fried chicken (chicken fried I want).

chufak sa banna  "I want a fork" (fork I would like).