I first saw the map at "Daily diversion: See how Madison's lakes changed changed since 19th century, in photos" (Wisconsin State Journal).
And here's the booklet!
Lake Mendota was called Wonk-sheck-ho-mik-la — "the lake where the Indian lies."
"Manitou" = a spirit.
Lake Mendota this morning at dawn...
Posts
33 comments:
I thought Wakanda was a black thang.
Mill-Eh-Walk-Eh...which means 'the good land'
We are not worthy.
Lake Mendota was called Wonk-sheck-ho-mik-la — "the lake where the Indian lies."
Native Americans lie, all tight, especially when talking to white devils.
"Wakanda"? Really?
The mythical black nation of the Marvel Universe?
Cultural appropriation! Ban the film!
Many lakes, the more interesting, appealing ones at least, seem to have a spirit unique to each. Lake George, in the Adirondacks, is another such. Each time one visits, he gets to partake of that spirit again. It is familiar and refreshing.
That explains the Martian sunrises. It’s the Spirit Horses on Horse Hill driving the Sun’s chariot over the horizon.
I am sorry I killed and ate the Spirit Raccoon that you were saving for breakfast.
Forgive me
it was delicious
so sweet
and so cold.
If it makes you feel better, a half-hour later I was spiritually hungry again.
So there was only ONE Indian tribe in Minnesota? Or were there many tribes and they all called the Lakes the same thing? Doubtful in either case.
You can see the madison.com images at a much larger size by
Rt-click->view image, then remove the "?resize=750%2C590"
from the end of the URL; then hit CR. Then click on the image to make it even larger.
For many years, my grandmother owned and ran the small bar and gas station at the western entrance to Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo. Staying with her in the summer was a taste of Eden.
There was an electric sign on the wall with a picture of a northern lake. On the lake, there was a canoe carrying an Indian maiden. If you pressed a button, the canoe went across the lake and the jingle, "From the land of sky blue waters (waaaaaaaaaaters), comes the water best for brewing. Hamm's, the beer refreshing; Hamm's, the beer refreshing" played.
This picture reminds me of that sign.
Wakanda. Huh. That's interesting... The standard lore is that Lee and Kirby might have gotten the name from Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs was born in Chicago and lived for a while in Oak Park. He set the end of the first Tarzan novel in Wisconsin, so, maybe?
"Wakanda Annoyed by Rabbit,"
The plot of Marvel's Black Panther II, coming soon to a theater near you!
Native American myths
Plenty of current myths at Navajo Times:
"At that time [Spanish Flu], medicine men contacted each other to prayed[sic] together. They used the protection ceremony in which they used an ash pile that was always set in the east direction of their hogans. For generations, this was practiced.
The invisible illness did not affect the Navajo people that practiced this method. My mother was a medicine woman when she came of age to heal others. She knows the Protection Way ceremony.
My grandfather, the medicine man, taught her. For this protection ceremony, he used his eagle feathers and arrowhead.
...
In the Navajo way, it’s a monster, it has eyes and its own being. Thus, by offering the gemstones, this virus figured we want it and is continuing to harm us by killing our people."
Tonto = stupido.
What distinguishes one lake from another is its shoreline. The actual water looks pretty much the same, although we only see the top of it.
Land O Lakes butter has gone PC insane . Next the Lakes with Indian names need to be scrubbed.Then we can sell you some Confederate general’s statues for sale cheap.
Land O Lakes butter has gone PC insane . Next the Lakes with Indian names need to be scrubbed.Then we can sell you some Confederate general’s statues for sale cheap.
There was a trick you could do with a Land o Lakes butter box which involved moving the Indian Maid's knees up to look like an ample bosom. They ruined that one.
"Wakanda Annoyed by Rabbit"/"The plot of Marvel's Black Panther II, coming soon to a theater near you!"
Funny, but also surprisingly disrespectful of Marvel to have used this set of syllables for their made-up story about Africa, when it was the name for God (for many Plains Indians).
I finished scything my acre of grass, a three day deal, done a bit at a time. It works fine in the rain; if anything, it's easier in the rain because a light rain supplies grass/blade lubrication.
Lake Mendota was called Wonk-sheck-ho-mik-la — "the lake where the Indian lies.", how did they know they were Indians?
OK, everybody. HEY! YEAH YOU TOO!
Listen up. Read "The Swan Song of a Modern Hiawatha." It's easy to find.
Hint: Mad Magazine.
Narr
There will be a test when I get back
And no comments about “Big Beaver”. This is a family blog.
Very interesting and cool to see those old photos of the lakes, Indian mounds, boats, people. And I thought OREGON had some hard to pronounce place names 😀
Historical photos and documents are so valuable. When they are lost we lose so very much.
With everything being digital today, we are just a momentary burst of energy from the sun to losing our history for future generations. Ephemeral storage of data, photos, books. Convenience isn't always the best.
"Lake Mendota was called Wonk-sheck-ho-mik-la — "the lake where the Indian lies.", how did they know they were Indians?"
Good question. I'm just taking information from the UW prof's booklet.
Presumably the syllables mean something more like the lake where the man lies. You can read the story of what happened in the booklet. The man was leaping from lake to lake after a spirit maiden in the waters. He found her in the last lake, the largest, northernmost lake, Lake Mendota. It sounds as though he got to live with her in the water. I'm thinking that "lies" is a euphemism for sex.
"Funny, but also surprisingly disrespectful of Marvel to have used this set of syllables for their made-up story about Africa, when it was the name for God (for many Plains Indians)."
Well it goes back to 1966 when such concerns were less of a thing. Beyond that no one seems to know for sure where Lee and Kirby got it. Maybe Burroughs (see above), but there are other Africa based possibilities, or maybe they just made it up. I wonder if anybody's asked Mark Evanier (one of Kirby's assistants who has an active blog).
Ann Althouse said...
Funny, but also surprisingly disrespectful of Marvel to have used this set of syllables for their made-up story about Africa, when it was the name for God (for many Plains Indians).
True, but I doubt Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (nee Stanley Lieber and Jacob Kurtzberg, both born and raised in Manhattan) had ever even heard of Lake Mendota or much about Native Americans that didn't come from a Tom Mix western.
WaPo article from a scholar (or maybe just somebody with a lot of time on his hands):
The surprising religious backstory of ‘Black Panther’s’ Wakanda
Wakanda or Wakonda was a popular name for Summer camps. Maybe the comic book writers were familiar with the one in the Catskills
You do realize that "Wonk-sheck-ho-mik-la" is Winnebago for "why are you asking what we call this lake, you stupid, ugly white man"?
@Lurker21 That is a very cool article! Thanks.
rhhardin and The Reaper: Perfect Together. Compared to using a lawnmower, it should be counted as a net carbon offset, especially if you can do it without exhaling or otherwise venting gases into the atmosphere.
A strange and interesting article, above. The "spirit raccoon" reminded me of this incident: Hiking with my camera once at at place in Morris County, north of here, I came upon an unexpected thing: A standing stone, about four feet high, of a kind of rock not native to the area, with a little circle of small animal skulls (raccoons, possums, etc) surrounding it. I didn't (and don't) know what to make of it; I did make a photograph of it, but kept looking over my shoulder in case I should be attacked for desecrating somebody's sacred (?) place. Or, it might have been just set up as a joke by teenagers going down there by the creek at night to get high.
As the photograph was not particularly successful, I'd planned to go back with a flash to make the stone stand out better from its environment, but most of the little skulls were gone or badly damaged by then. Chalk it up to another one-off "weird things you see in the woods sometimes".
When I told my wife about it, she said "You didn't take a picture of it, did you?", and looked rather distressed when I confirmed that I had, as though I'd brought bad juju into the house by doing so. (Apparently not, it was several years ago and once again the spooks have given me the slip.)
DBQ said: "Ephemeral storage of data, photos, books. Convenience isn't always the best."
You are so right. That is why I use film for any photography that I care about (digital is for Craigslist ads only).
The Library of Congress has many of Mathew Brady's photographs from the Civil War, including many of Grant, Lincoln, Lee, and many other generals and the soldiers who suffered there. We can still print them! Being of collodion on glass, stored as they are, they could remain printable for centuries.
The portrait of Lincoln on the penny is, I believe, based on a photograph by Brady or one of his crew. (Many pictures attributed to Brady were probably made by his associates.)
I'm also a fan of hardback books, and CDs, for the same reason.
Post a Comment