Proposed LNAB change Chief Kechewaishke Buffalo

Question

After reading comments on G2G (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/344462/), reviewing his biography on WikiTree, and doing some internet surfing, I am proposing a change to the names of Chief Buffalo.

He is currently set up as:

• Proper/Preferred First Name: Kechewaishke
• Other Nicknames:  Chief Buffalo, Peezhickee
• LNAB/Current Last Name:  Buffalo

Proposed changes:

• Proper/Preferred First Name: Keche-waishke
• Other Nicknames: Buffalo
• LNAB/Current Last Name: Ojibwa

One other suggestion made was to give his name as Frederick, since that was his baptismal name. However, he was only baptized two days before his death so I think that should not apply.

If this change is made, consideration should be given as to the surnames of his descendants.

Suggestions, comments?

Shirley

Comments

Please, Andrew, do not use the word Aboriginal when it comes to addressing Indigenous people. Any word with the letters AB before it makes it contrary or inverted in meaning. For Instance normal and abnormal and aboriginal and original.
Many Thanks

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Darrell, interesting.  I'd never considered that. Can you point us to references that discuss this? Wikipedia was disappointingly incomplete: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aborigine

I believe there are some indigenous groups who do use Aboriginal to describe themselves.  That may be a case like the members of the Religious Society of Friends which adopted the term Quakers -- initially a derogative term used by their critics -- as their own.

That said, wherever we can, we should use the term used by the people themselves. And when we do use tribe name, to be as accurate to the time period as we can.

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Darrel, I don't quite know how to approach the comment without having to use the dictionary for the prefix Ab.  Word Origin and History for ab-

word-forming element meaning "away, from, from off, down;" from Latin ab- , ab "off, away from," from PIEroot *apo- (see apo-). Reduced to a- before -m-, -p- , or -v- ; sometimes abs- before -c- or -t- .

In the case of Aboriginal, it is attached to mean from the original and not away as in abnormal.  English is funny that way.  Thus what we have is a totally accepted word that not only describes  Indians, but also includes a larger number of groups including the Inuit, and Metis people.  http://www.thecanadaguide.com/basics/aboriginals/   Since we, you and I, are historic family members I can assure you too are included in the Aboriginal community and should be damn proud of it.  The Canadian Government calls us aboriginals, https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-  enm/2011/as-sa/99-011-x/99-011-x2011001-eng.cfm.  The gov't refers to us as indigenous people as well because of the large scope of groups including our Metis.  It also refers to us as native people and in fact, uses the term Indian as well primarily because of the Indian Act   There is no end to references to Aboriginal organizations in Canada and Winnipeg is a hub. For instance check out the following, Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg, Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce, And the list goes on and one,  Just Google Aboriginal Winnipeg or Aboriginal Canada and be prepared.  Aboriginal is not a derogatory term in any way shape or form.  I believe this is a misguided notion and a failure in understanding English and prefixes. 

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When we think of a people who lived on this continent for many thousands of years and have had their culture, dignity and self-respect taken away from them by British colonialism. The word allegory comes to mind, which means a word that has a hidden meaning. It's a word not used very often within the English language but people who use it know exactly what it is. The term Aboriginal is clearly a word of allegory. When you think that putting links of Canada’s use of the word justifies the usage of the word aboriginal it only adds meaning to the use of allegory. At one time the word Aboriginal was accepted among many communities but this is quickly changing since many people are coming to the understanding of what it really means. Many people of different backgrounds of First Nation, Métis and otherwise and you look at a document such as the Indian Act when in fact Indian is not a term that applies to the First Peoples of this continent since Columbus was lost and was looking for India. We have to change our perspective and respect the people who choose to call themselves whatever they wish. Canada is still a colonial government who wants to keep the status quo and not settle any of the issues that present themselves.

                Words control the world, we have to remember respect, if people choose to be called Indigenous, First Nation or Native American it is their choice but I think many are choosing not to use the word Aboriginal anymore. With time comes change and with change comes knowing and understanding and I hope we can share this and the truth in the betterment of Indigenous Peoples around the world.

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http://membean.com/wrotds/ab-away

1. abnormal: “away” from being normal
2. absent: being “away” from a place
3. abvolate: fly “away”
4. absolutely: loosened “away” from any doubt
5. abduct: lead “away”
6. abdicate: a monarch saying she wants to be “away” from being in power
7. abort: “away” from rising or beginning
8. absorb: suck “away”
9. abrasive: relating to scraping “away” at
10. aberrant: wander “away”

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It's your choice to stop at the " away " and forget the 'from" or to infer that Canadians are so colonial that they still hold onto past ideologies, which couldn't be farther from the truth.  We have one of the largest aboriginal populations in the world and it may be interesting to note Statistics Canada used the word aboriginal 10 times in the Population data below.  Do you think for one second with our current PC Liberal government a derogatory term would be used to describe any possible voter?  Please, it wouldn't happen. 

Population

• 1,673,785 — The number of people who reported an Aboriginal identity in the 2016 Census of Population.
• 4.9% — The percentage of the total population of Canada who reported an Aboriginal identity in 2016. This was up from 3.8% in 2006 and 2.8% in 1996.
• 977,230 — The number of people who reported being First Nations (including Status and Non–Status Indians) in 2016.
• 587,545 — The number of people who reported being Métis in 2016.
• 65,025 — The number of people who reported being Inuit in 2016.
• 32.1 years — The average age of the Aboriginal population in Canada in 2016, almost a decade younger than the non–Aboriginal population (40.9 years). Among the three Aboriginal groups, Inuit were the youngest with an average age of 27.7 years, followed by First Nations at 30.6 years and Métis at 34.7 years.
• 374,395 — The number of Aboriginal people in Ontario in 2016, which was the largest of any province or territory in Canada.
• 18% — The percentage of the total population of Manitoba who reported an Aboriginal identity in 2016. This was the largest of all of the provinces, followed by Saskatchewan at 16%.
• 86% — The percentage of the total population of Nunavut who reported an Inuit identity.
• 92,810 — The number of Aboriginal people in the census metropolitan area of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2016. Winnipeg had the largest Aboriginal population of any population centre in Canada. 

As I said English is a difficult language and if you only look at the words with a nasty connotation then you will find them.  That's why there are people combing the history books demanding persons from our history be demoted because they caused or did something in their era that would be intolerable in today's society.  

The definition we are looking at is more along the lines of this one vice membean. com 

Aboriginal Definition

Pertaining to things or land or person or members of a race, which are indigenous to, or first occupied a specified territory.

As the Oxford Dictionary suggests in regards to aboriginal:

"First or earliest so far as history or science gives record; the earliest known inhabitants .. as distinguished from subsequent European colonists."

I wonder if this argument is more based on Political Correctness on your part than on the actual word uses.  English is a tough language. 

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maybe you do not think it is offensive but if it is to one person, it may be to others and they do not say - lots of things they don't say

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There are many many other words that Aboriginal people find offensive but that is not one of them speaking in general terms.  Feelings are not an issue with Wikitree or shouldn't be.  If one or two people or even hundreds feel slighted then so be it.  Go to another site.  There are at least 1.8 million that don't.  The Oxford Dictionary is the defacto standard for the English language, it is the go-to reference for scholars around the world.  Attempting to demonize a word by insisting the prefix Ab make the word aboriginal evil is a fool's errand.  It just isn't the case.  There is a huge amount of guilt associated with the colonial treatment of the native populations and rightly so, however, abandoning a name for the sake of political correctness is not going to correct the wrongs.  Actions correct those things. If you think the synonyms, indigenous or first nations makes the user feel better then use them but don't make the word Aboriginal into something it's not?  It is an acceptable word for those very same names.

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None of this has much of anything to do with geneaolgy, which deals with individual people.  This man was an individual, a member of a sovereign nation, probably called Ojibwe.  His culture, as far as we know, did not use Western-style surnames during his life but this software demands that we provide him with one.   If we want to be respectful of the people who lived here before Europeans arrived and their descendants, instead of arguing about which generic term is least offensive we need to do our best to identify people as the tribal citizens that they were and are.

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Good answer Kathie!

Answer 1

As a project member looking at this for the first time, I think the change makes sense based on project guidelines. I'd probably stick Frederick in the nicknames section or as a research note.

Did the descendants pick up the name Buffalo and officially use it as a surname? I'm unfamiliar with this tribe and its naming traditions, but there seems to be a time period in all tribes' histories (stemming from contact with the US government) where officials start sticking a surname on paper that is derived from someone's native language name and anglicized. Is this that time period for the Ojibwa? Even so, as long as a native name in the native language is known, we should still use it over the anglicized version shouldn't we?(which takes me to a whole other dilemma in my own research, but more on that another time). I'd say further research is needed to look for the children of Keche-waishke and try to source some Ojibwa names for them if possible.

Answer 2

This reminds me of the word "miscegenation" which came from the root misce-, to mix, like miscible. But it was used with a derogatory implication as if it referred to something wrong like mistake, mistrial, misprint, misapplication, etc.