Opinion: There's nothing negative about using the word 'Sioux'
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Filed Under:
Opinion
"The plural noun “Sioux” is capitalized and denotes an American Indian people, retaining the cap as an adjective. It does not mean anything else.
The history of the word is conjectural, but several sources agree that at one time and in other languages it connoted “little snakes” and might have been derisive when applied to human beings. “Sioux” has not at any time had such a connotation in American English. If in the general usage of the late 19th century it had held a derisive connotation, who would have thought to use the noun in important place names? Think of Sioux City, Sioux Falls and Sioux County (N.D.).
In the American English of yesterday and today, “snake” has both mildly negative and mildly positive – e.g., “snake in the grass,” onetime NFL quarterback Jake “The Snake” Plummer – and one Shoshonean tribe is pleased to retain the word as its name. “Sioux” has never denoted snakes. Any word may be uttered with a sneer, but “Sioux” does not offer an implicit one. To claim to be offended at it is wholly subjective."
Get the Story:
Rodney Nelson: Muddy language regarding ‘Sioux’
(The Fargo Forum 3/16)
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