First Nations Freaks

Commissioned poem written by: ysabewordsmith

Can is the prefix for anything made of wood:
can cega the drum, canozake the fork in a tree,
cannakpaa the wood mushroom called tree-ears.

Canoni are wanderers in the woods, Dakota families
who follow cankuna, the little path, and eventually
come out onto the plains under the open sky.

Standing alone, they spot canpaza,
wood-pointing-to-the-sky, a tree.

As they harvest canshasha,
red willow bark, they see a beaver,
capa, swims-stick-in-mouth.

The words in the language are as
trees in a forest: linked, part of a whole.

Unofficial Lakota Language Guide
https://www.wolakotaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Unofficial-Lakota-Language-Guide.pdf

can (chun).... wood [preffix to anything made of wood]
can cega (chun chay-guh).... drum
cankuna (chun-koo-na).... little path
cannakpaa (chun-nah-k'pah).... mushroom growing on trees : literally "tree-ears"
Canoni (chun-oh-nee).... wanderers in the woods: some Dakota families who
eventually come onto the plain
canozake (chun-oh-zhah-kay).... fork in the tree.
canpaza (chun-pah-zah).... wood pointing to the sky, ancient term for "tree"
canshasha (chun-shaw-shaw).... red willow bark
capa (cha-pah).... beaver: literally "swims-stick-in-mouth".