Glossary of Non-Indian Nations
Mentioned in the Website

See also Glossary of Indian Nations.

African-Americans — the first slaves arrived in the English colonies in America from the African continent in 1609. Considering the substantial amount of time that black people have been in America, it is not surprising that they have had some influence on the folklore of the American Indian tribes. Among the conduits for African folklore reaching the American Indian nations were the stories collected by Uncle Remus. Many of these are ultimately of African origin. Parallel stories: 1 (Tar Baby), 2 (Briar Patch).

Altai (Black Tatar, Mountain Kalmuck, Oirat, Tele, Telengit, Teleut, White Kalmuck) — a Siberian people living near the Altai Mountains speaking a Turkic language. They were nomadic pastoralists, but noted for their metal working as far back as the II^ḍ Millennium BC. The Altai originally practiced shamanism, but with Russian contact in the XVIIIᵀᴴ century, they increasingly embraced Orthodox Christianity. Many are Tibetan Buddhists. With industrialization most of the rural population of the Altai has dispersed to jobs in urban centers.

Americans — see Big Knives and African-Americans.

Andaman Islanders — Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Arabs — originally a desert-dwelling people of the Middle East, chiefly of interest because they named and catalogued most of the visible stars. Mentioned in footnotes: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Australian Aborigines — the inhabitants of Australia for at least the last 40,000 years. There culture is more homogeneous across the whole continent than that of the American Indians, and no civilizations of high technology have arisen among them. Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2.

Bantu — the name of the largest language group of sub-Saharan Africa. Parallel stories: 1.

Batek — A people of the Malacca peninsula. Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Big Knives (Mahįxete), Long Knives — the name given by the Great Lakes tribes to the white Americans and to the English colonials who preceded them. So called from their use of long hunting knives and butcher knives, but most particularly from the sabers employed by their cavalry. See also the Big Knife Age. Mentioned in ethnographies: 1; Mentioned in histories: 1; Mentioned in stories: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; Parallel stories: 1.

Buganda — the land of the Baganda people, the largest ethnic group in Uganda, whose capital Kampala is also the capital of Buganda. Ganda villages are built on the sides of hills, the tops and lowlands being used for crops. These villages, run by chiefs or headmen, were organized into a kingdom governed by the kabaka. The chiefs were responsible for paying taxes and tribute to the kabaka. The Ganda are organized into patrilinear clans. Young children of poorer people were often sent to live for a time with people of the higher classes. The latter were expected to exemplify high levels of self-control. The culture is socially mobile and tolerant of diversity, but divorce is high. Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Bulgarians — a Balkan nation closely related to the Russians. The Bulgars, who gave their name to the country, were actually an Altaic people who formed a small ruling military elite, but were eventually assimilated. Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2.

Buryat — a largely Turkic speaking people living around Lake Baikal, and now number about 300,000. They were once nomadic and associated with the Mongols. The Russians annexed their territories in the treaties of 1689 and 1728. They came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism which was almost wiped out by Stalin, but has since enjoyed a revival. Mentioned in commentaries: 2.

Chinese — the oldest continuous civilization in the world. The American Indians show the greatest genetic affinity to the Chinese, but have no known linguistic similarities with the Sino-Tibetan language group. The Hocągara were familiar with the Chinese in the XIXᵀᴴ century, and called them Hókeresérec’ų́, "those who make a long queue" on account of the hairstyle of the time. Mentioned in footnotes: 1; Mentioned in ethnographies: 1, 2, 3, 4; Mentioned in commentaries: 2, 3, 4.

Chuckchee (Chukchi) — a people of northeastern Siberia living in the Chukchi Peninsula on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. They now number ca. 15,000. The Reindeer Chukchee (Chauchu, "Rich in Reindeer") economy was founded on reindeer herding, and the Maritime Chukchee (Anqallyt, "Sea People") hunted seals, whales, and other sea mammals. The Chukchee as a whole are called Luoravetlan, "True People." The Chukchee were animists and practiced shamanism. The Russians first made contact with them in 1644. By contemporary times the Chukchee have been almost completely Russianized. Parallel stories: 1, 2.

Egyptian — one of the great civilizations of antiquity. The original kingdoms of Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north, were united under the first pharaoh, Menes. Their polytheistic religion was largely solar oriented. The language of ancient Egypt evolved into Coptic, which was spoken in Christian times, but is rare today. Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (the goddess Nut), 2 (hands of the Aten), 3 (hands of the Aten), 4 (treatment of the jawbone of the dead), 5 (treatment of status in Egyptian art), 7 (Orion as the Armlet), 8 (the golden penis of Osiris), 9 (sun and moons as eyes of Horus, Amun); Parallel stories: 1 (Osiris & Isis).

English (and British) (Hocąk, Zaganąš < French [le]s Anglaise) — a major colonial power from the XVIIᵀᴴ century on. They founded the first permanent English speaking colony of the New World at Jamestown in 1607. This led to conflict with the Native American tribes, at that time principally the Powhattan. In 1621 Plymouth was founded by Puritans, marking the establishment of New England. From these initial outposts, the settlers moved ever westward coming into conflict with the Indian nations they met in their progress. In 1763, with the victorious outcome of the French and Indian War, the British were able to seize all of Canada from the French. However, not long afterwards, in 1775, the American colonists began a successful war of independence from the British Crown. The American expansion westward devastated the Native American tribes, most of whom sided with the British in the subsequent War of 1812. With the Louisiana Purchase by the United States and the fixing of the 48th parallel as the boundary with Canada, a stable partition of English speaking North America was achieved. This left the Indian tribes with no European ally with which to counterbalance the aggression of American whites. In the deep past, the inhabitants of England were not strikingly different from the American Indians. Pagan Old English (Anglo-Saxon) mythic and poetic material may occasionally converge with that of the North American Indians. Mentioned in ethnographies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Mentioned in texts: 1, 2. Parallel stories: 2.

Fiji Islands — Parallel stories: 1.

French — an important colonial power in the Great Lakes region, having established in the XVIIᵀᴴ century New France in Canada, and Louisiana extending the length of the Mississippi River. The Hocągara were allied with the French for as long as they had a presence in North America. The Hocągara were among those Indian nations that the French were able to turn against the Fox and later the English. Many Frenchmen joined the tribe and have left numerous descendants among the present day Hocągara, as the following names attest: Decorah (de Carrie), LaMère, Baptiste, StCyr, LaSallier, Lecuyer, Menaige, Paquette, Bonaparte, and Bassette. The Hocągara call the French, Waxopínixjį̀nįgera, "Little Quasi-Spirit" people, or Waxopíniskága, "White Spirit" people; or simply Waxopíniga, "Spirit" people. This last came to denote all white people. These terms came into use as a result of first contact in 1634, when Jean Nicollet's expedition encountered the Hocągara on the shores of Lake Michigan. He was dressed in Chinese garb in conformity with his hopeful expectations to find the Orient, and when he arrived, he fired off two pistols in the air as a salutation. This caused the Hocągara to believe that he was a spirit (waxopíni), specifically, a Thunderbird. The French are also called Jimoxgemena, a name of unknown meaning and provenance. French loan words in Hocąk: ajenį́na, "angel"; bík, pek, "playing card" < fr. pique, "spade"; Zaganąš, "English" < fr. les Anglais. Mentioned in texts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Texts in French: 1; French letters: 1; Mentioned in ethnographies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40; Hocąk stories told by Frenchmen: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Germans (Taǧeri) — in ancient times a warlike, forest dwelling people of Indo-European speech living in northern Europe. Their environment was very similar to that of the Hocągara. In modern times a great many Germans settled on what were once Hocąk lands. German speakers, most particularly Jacob Stucki, did extensive work among the Hocągara, and produced the first Hocąk Bible. Today a massive linguistic program to analyze and preserve the Hocąk language is being undertaken at Erfurt University principally under the leadership of Johannes Helmbrecht. Mentioned in ethnographies: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2. Parallel stories: 1, 2.

Greeks — in ancient times a forest dwelling people of Indo-European speech living on a mountainous peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea. They are the original culture of Western Civilization. Greeks today are not a large ethnic group in Wisconsin. While Greek myths could have spread through the study of classics among the white population, it is likely that parallel myths reflect similar responses of the myth making mind to similar phenomena (parallel evolution). Mentioned in footnotes: 1 (Άργός Πἄνότης | Argos Panoptēs); Mentioned in ethnographies: 1 (Mars Hill), 2 (music), 3 (superstitions); Mentioned in commentaries: 2 (Gaia), 3 (Gaia), 4 (Aries), 5 (Ὠκεᾰνός | Okeanos), 6 (Okeanos), 7 (Okeanos), 8 (Acheloos), 9 (waters of Lēthē), 11 (ferry man of the dead [Charon]), 12 (Charon), 13 (Charon, Orpheus), 14 (Charon, Orpheus), 15 (Demeter & Persephone), 16 (Demeter & Persephone), 17 (death & sleep), 18 (otherworld poplars), 19 (dyads), 20 (Orion's blindness), 21 (Orion & the scorpion), 22 (Ixion), 23 (winged sandals of Hermes), 24 (Hermes, caduceus, heralds), 25 (caduceus), 26 (eagle and Zeus), 27 (Zeus, sky, & eagle), 28 (Pegasos), 29 (Pegasos), 30 (thunderbolts shot from the eyes of Zeus), 31 (κεραυνία), 32 (Dioskouroi), 33 (Herakles), 34 (Apollo, hawks, arrows, & physicians), 35 (Bisected Man ritual), 36 (warfare in the Iliad), 37 (Achilles & Briseis), 38 (curse of Minos), 39 (Pythagoreans), 40 (mysteries of Eleusis), 41 (Poseidon as Earthshaker), 42 (Charon, ferry man of the dead), 43 (waters of Lēthē), 44 (sinkholes), 45 (Σείριος Κὑων), 46 (the dance of the stars), 47 (πλάνητες | plánētes), 48 (Okeanos), 49 (Orphism: eyes of Zeus as sun and moon), 50 (Γαλαξίᾱς | Galaxías), 51 (Helios & Apollo), 52 (Apollo Smintheus), 53 (Dioskouri), 54 (muelos | μυελός), 55 (muelos | μυελός), 56 (definite article in personal names), 57 (Orpheus, Apollo, Zeus); Parallel stories: 1 (Pegasos), 2 (Bellerophon), 3 (birth of Aphrodite), 4 (Hermes), 5 (Hermes, Argos), 6 (Άργός Πἄνότης | Argos Panoptes), 7 (Pandora), 8 (Pandora), 9 (Narcissus), 10 (Icarus), 11 (Niobe), 12 (Waters of Forgetfulness), 13 (Judgment of Paris), 14 (Cheiron), 15 (Thersites), 16 (Tantalus; Philemon & Bacis), 17 (Erichthonios), 18 (Lucifer), 19 (Dioskouroi), 20 (Odysseus & the Sirens), 21 (Peleus & Thetis), 22 (exposure of the infant Oedipus), 24 (Ixion & Nephele); 25 (Judgment of Paris); 26 (the silver bow of Apollo); 27 (Aphrodite and the rose); 28 (Trojan War); 29 ναϊάδα | Naiads.

Christian — a strongly Hellenized religion that began as a Jewish theological contention that a certain Jesus (Yeshu) of Nazareth (b. ca. 4 B. C.) was the prophesied Messiah (Greek, Χριστός/Christos). It soon became heretical by contending first that Jesus had a dual nature that embraced God the Father (Yahweh), and afterwards asserting that there was a trinity that included the Holy Spirit. It spread throughout the Roman Empire and by the reign of Constantine the Great, had become the official religion. Its basic contention is that God took the form of the man Jesus who sacrificed himself to vicariously atone for human sins (including Original Sin), and that those who believed in his divinity and purpose would achieve immortality in a spiritual paradise. Christians were known to the Hocągara as "Black Robes" (Waisép’į), because of the attire of the Jesuits, the first Christians encountered by the north central tribes. Mentioned in texts: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (light = life), 2 (the Second Coming), 3 (wedding vow), 4 (fishers of men), 5 (men as trees); Parallel stories: 1 (curing with spit).

Macedonia — a Greek kingdom in the north that began to dominate Greece under the reign of King Philip. His son, Alexander the Great, unified Greece and formed an invincible army under his personal command with which he created the greatest empire of its time. After his death, the empire fragmented and in time Macedonia came under the ægis of Rome. (Present day Macedonia is Slavic and therefore unconnected to the heritage of the ancient Macedonians.) Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (Bisected Dog ritual).

Hawaiian — Parallel stories: 1.

Hebrews — a warlike nomadic people who settled in Canaan and eventually established the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea there. Most parallel stories derive from the Hebrew Bible, some portions of which were translated into Hocąk in 1903. However, the early influences of Christianity through missionaries and settlers would have allowed the infiltration of Old Testament stories into oral literature of the North American tribes. Mentioned in translations: 1 (word for "thistles"); Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (Creation of Man), 2 (light = life), 3 (Ark of the Covenant), 4 (Moses & the burning bush), 5 (the judgment of Solomon); Parallel stories: 1 (Original Sin and the Forbidden Fruit), 2 (Adam and Eve), 3 (Lucifer), 4 (Noah), 5 (Ten Commandments), 6 (David and Goliath), 7 (Jonah), 8 (Joseph), 9 (Solomon), 10 (Samson & Delilah), 11 (Tower of Babel), 12 (Jacob and Esau), 13 (Forbidden Fruit), 14 (Jacob and Esau).

Indian (Hindu) — people of the vast Indian subcontinent of south central Asia, where the Indo-European language, Sanskrit, used to dominate. A great religious literature exists in this language dating back to high antiquity (ca. 1500 B. C.). The polytheistic religion of Sanskrit speaking India evolved into modern Hinduism. The polytheism of the Hocągara often shows convergences with that of India. Mentioned in footnotes: 1 (मीन mīna, "fish"); Mentioned in ethnographies: 1, 2; Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (Birth of the Aśvins), 2 (svastika), 3 (the eating of Soma), 4 (the soma herb), 5 (avatars), 7 (Karṇa's golden earrings), 8 (the eating of Soma), 9 (prevention of revenants), 10 (Asura), 11 (Parjánya), 12 (कणॅ Karṇa as "Ear"), 13 (sun and moon as eyes). Parallel stories: 1 (Yama, dogs), 2 (Kṛṣṇa & the Cow Herders), 3 (Soma), 4 (Birth of the Aśvins), 5 (Cyavana, Sukanyā, and the Aśvins), 6 (Yudhiṣṭhira answers Dharma), 7 (Yama & Yamī, Aśvins), 8 (Orion as the Arm), 9 (Cyavana, Sukanyā, and the Aśvins).

Buddhists — Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Indo-European — a language group comprising most of the languages of Europe and India, including such languages and language families as Germanic (including English), Celtic, Italic (including Latin), Greek, Albanian, Tocharian, Hittite, Baltic, Slavic, Sanskrit, and Farsi. Mentioned: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14.

Iranian — the modern Farsi speaking people of south central Asia, the descendants in language and culture of the Persians of antiquity. Parallel stories: 1 (Jamshid and Taxmoruw).

Irish (Hit’ewarašišik) — a people whose native speech, Gaelic, belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family. The Irish were known to the Hocągara mainly from lead miners in their region of Wisconsin. There were many clashes with these miners, so the relationship on the whole was not good. The name of the Irish in Hocąk, Hit'e waraši(ši)šik, means "Foreigners." The word hit’e means language, and the second part of their name is analyzed as wa-ra-šišik, meaning, "those who go about acting badly." So the compound means, "Those who speak poorly" a reference to the language barrier. Cf. the Hocąk name for Fountain City, Hit'ewarašišik Cinąk, "Foreign Town." Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (Champion's Portion), 2 (Champion's Portion), 3 (Champion's Portion); Parallel stories: 1 (Aided Conrói Maic Dáiri), 2 (Lugaid).

Japanese — Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Maori — a Polynesian people of New Zealand. Parallel stories: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Masai — Mentioned in footnotes: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Norse — a name given to those Scandinavians who spoke Old Norse (Old Icelandic). They have a substantial literature in sagas, histories, and the writings of Snorri Sturluson. Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (the word mann), 2 (one-eyed Óðinn), 3 (ulfheðnar), 4 (Æsir), 5 (Fjǫrgynn); Parallel stories: 1 (Gleipnir), 2 (Gleipnir), 3 (Guðrun & Atle), 4 (Binding of the Fenrir Wolf), 5 (Mimir's Well), 6 (Ϸórr's visit to the Giants), 7 (Níðhǫggr gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasill), 8 (Skaði and Baldr); mentioned in footnotes: 1 (Odin and wolves).

Roman — Rome (Roma/Ruma) was originally founded as an Etruscan trading town for the Latin market. It gained hegemony over the other 30 cities of the Latins, and gradually rose to preeminance, becoming the greatest ancient empire of the Western world. The virtue of the Republic succumbed to self-serving elites who forfeited their power to emperors who governed at the whim of the military. Its mythology was largely euhemerized as early Roman history. Its pagan religion, which was strongly Hellenized, eventually fell to the advance of Christianity, whose god they had crucified. By a gradual meiosis, the Empire broke into an eastern and western half, with Rome being eclipsed in wealth and power by Byzantium. The Western Empire became unstable and financially weakened to the point that it was riddled with German incursions. This eventually led to its dissolution. Mentioned in ethnographies: 1, 2; Mentioned in commentaries: 1 (Bisected Dog ritual), 2 (fulgar & fulmen), 3 (otherworld poplars), 4 (quercus), 5 (genius); Parallel stories: 1 (sons of Brutus).

Russian — a Slavic people with an interior empire resembling in that respect the imperium of the United States, with which it was on very good terms in the XIXᵀᴴ century. The Siberian hunter gatherer peoples of eastern Russia are the stock whence the American Indians arose, having migrated from there to the continents of the Western Hemisphere either on foot or by boat down the coast. There were Russian settlements in America as far south as California, remembered in the names "Sevastopol" and "Russian River." The primary Russian settlements were in Alaska, where their cultural impact is still felt. In their heyday they had their own struggles with the Indians just like the Americans farther south. Shortly after the American Civil War, the Russians sold Alaska to the United States. In 1917 the czarist regime was overthrown, and the Russian Empire changed its name to the "Soviet Union," which was governed by an oligarchy called the "Politburo." In the 1930's Joseph Stalin ruled essentially as a czar, but with intensified powers. Prior to, and during, the Second World War, large parts of the West were conquered, as Russia bore the brunt of overthrowing the Nazi regime in Germany, which resembled its own regime in almost every way except in rhetoric. In an extraordinary act of statesmanship, most of these conquests were voluntarily relinquished in the bicentennial year of the French Revolution. This ended a 60 year cold war with the United States. Russia fell back into authoritarian rule, and its relationship with the West remains ill defined and unstable. Mentioned in footnotes: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Samoyed — A Siberian people. Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Spanish (Hocąk, Spanioraga)— a great European colonial power responsible for establishing white hegemony over most lands south of the Rio Grande and for exploring much of the American southwest and parts of the Mississippi basin. They introduced the horse to the New World and are the source of the Indian acquisition of this animal which so revolutionized nomadic lifestyles. Mentioned in ethnographies: 1; Mentioned in commentaries: 1; Mentioned in texts: 1.

Swiss — a polyglot nation situated in the Alps in the center of western Europe. The missionary Jakob Stucki (1857-1930), a Swiss immigrant, played in important role in the recent history of the Hocągara, when in 1885, he became the head of the Winnebago Indian Mission of the German Reformed Church near Black River Falls, Wisconsin (founded, 1878). Many Hocągara were educated in the school there, and the one established later in Neillsville, Wisconsin. In collaboration with John Stacy, a Hocąk, Stucki translated much of the Bible into the Hocąk language (1903).

Jakob Stucki	Mission Chapel	John Stacy, Third from the Left

Tuamotuan — a language spoken by 6,700 inhabitants of the Polynesian island of Tuamotu, and by another 2,000 people on nearby Tahiti. Tuamotu is the largest chain of atolls in the world, containing 78 largely low lying coral islands. On a few of these the languages of Puka-Pukan and Mangarevan are spoken instead of Tuamotuan. They seem to have been settled ca. 700 AD by Polynesians from the Society Islands. They were first discovered to the outside world when Tupac Inca Yupanqui reached them with an expedition in ca. 1480. Not long afterwards, they were encountered by Ferdinand Magellan, during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1521. They had been for some time under the control of Tahiti until the resignation of King Pamare V, after which they went over to the French. They cultivate copra and the rare black pearl, but the Tuamotuans otherwise pursue a subsistence economy. Some of the foods known to Tuamotu are vanilla, tropical fruits, yams, taro, and breadfruit. Huts were made with thatched roofs, although in recent times the roofs have been made of corrugated metal. Parallel stories: 1.

Turkish — a people speaking an Altaic language originally from the Altai Mountains of central Asia. They moved south pushing the Avars ahead of them and occupied south central Asia, and parts of Asia Minor (now Turkey). Their first great hegemon was the Seljuk Empire against which the Crusades were launched. Afterwards the Ottomans (Osmanli) set up their seat of power in Asia Minor within the territory of the Byzantine Empire, which they eventually overthrew in the late XVth century. Their apogee was in the reign of Sulieman the Magnificent, whose imperial sway extended to the gates of Vienna and across North Africa and the Mideast. After the First World War, a cultural revolution was led by Mustafa Kemal, called "Atatürk," in which Turkey westernized. Mentioned in Footnotes: 1 (the star name Yilduz); Mentioned in ethnographies: 1.

Yakuts — a Siberian people. Mentioned in commentaries: 1.

Zande — a central African tribe. Parallel stories: 1.