Post by Okwes on Mar 22, 2007 15:22:13 GMT -5
WAPATOO
Other common names: arrowhead, duck potato, flèche d'eau, tule,
wapata
Genus: Sagittaria < sagitta Latin, arrow. Leaves shaped like an
arrowhead give this plant its name. The Latin word for arrow hits the
target in another familiar word Sagittarius, the sign of the zodiac that
is the archer in Latin, referring originally to the constellation.
The arrowhead plant family is found chiefly in freshwater streams and
swamps in temperate and tropical regions of the northern hemisphere. The
two common species in Canada are the more southerly Sagittaria latifolia
with its lata folia or broad leaves, and the more northerly Sagittaria
cuneata with cuneate or wedge-shaped leaves.
The obliging little duck potato, tuber of Sagittaria latifolia, floats
to the surface of ponds when ripe where it can be collected by animals
and man.
Arrowhead tubers grow in the muddy guck of shallow streams and marshes
across Canada, where wild geese, ducks, beavers, and muskrats chomp them
with gusto. Observing the animals feasting on tubers, native peoples
found wapatoo could provide good food even in the winter. Adult
aboriginal people used digging sticks to harvest arrowhead tubers, but
children jumped into the streams and found tubers by squishing them
between toes in the warm muck and yanking them loose. Wapatoo was then
boiled or roasted in hot ashes. Wapatoo is a word in Chinook Jargon,
borrowed from an Algonkian language where wap/wab is the root signifying
the colour white. Wapatoo means `white food' or specifically, if
from Cree, it may contain the root for mushroom that appears in wapatowa
`white mushroom.'
Wab and Wap Words
Wabamun is a place in central Alberta whose name is the Cree word for
mirror, literally 'white glass.'
Wampum is short for wamp-umpeag 'white strings' of beads made from
shells for decorative and monetary use. Its roots are wap 'white' + umpe
'string.'
Wapiti is Cree for 'elk.' Compare Cree wapita 'it's white!' referring to
the elk's white-furred rump.
Wapun means 'dawn' in Cree, that is, the white time of the day, when the
sky whitens or lightens. An eastern Canadian people are called the
Abenaki. But their name in Naskapi/Cree is Wabanakiyak 'people of the
dawn, of the east.'
Wapus or wabus means rabbit, that is, the white animal. Hence
Wabasso™ linen and the place in Labrador West District called Wabush
which in the Naskapi language means 'place of rabbits.'
Other common names: arrowhead, duck potato, flèche d'eau, tule,
wapata
Genus: Sagittaria < sagitta Latin, arrow. Leaves shaped like an
arrowhead give this plant its name. The Latin word for arrow hits the
target in another familiar word Sagittarius, the sign of the zodiac that
is the archer in Latin, referring originally to the constellation.
The arrowhead plant family is found chiefly in freshwater streams and
swamps in temperate and tropical regions of the northern hemisphere. The
two common species in Canada are the more southerly Sagittaria latifolia
with its lata folia or broad leaves, and the more northerly Sagittaria
cuneata with cuneate or wedge-shaped leaves.
The obliging little duck potato, tuber of Sagittaria latifolia, floats
to the surface of ponds when ripe where it can be collected by animals
and man.
Arrowhead tubers grow in the muddy guck of shallow streams and marshes
across Canada, where wild geese, ducks, beavers, and muskrats chomp them
with gusto. Observing the animals feasting on tubers, native peoples
found wapatoo could provide good food even in the winter. Adult
aboriginal people used digging sticks to harvest arrowhead tubers, but
children jumped into the streams and found tubers by squishing them
between toes in the warm muck and yanking them loose. Wapatoo was then
boiled or roasted in hot ashes. Wapatoo is a word in Chinook Jargon,
borrowed from an Algonkian language where wap/wab is the root signifying
the colour white. Wapatoo means `white food' or specifically, if
from Cree, it may contain the root for mushroom that appears in wapatowa
`white mushroom.'
Wab and Wap Words
Wabamun is a place in central Alberta whose name is the Cree word for
mirror, literally 'white glass.'
Wampum is short for wamp-umpeag 'white strings' of beads made from
shells for decorative and monetary use. Its roots are wap 'white' + umpe
'string.'
Wapiti is Cree for 'elk.' Compare Cree wapita 'it's white!' referring to
the elk's white-furred rump.
Wapun means 'dawn' in Cree, that is, the white time of the day, when the
sky whitens or lightens. An eastern Canadian people are called the
Abenaki. But their name in Naskapi/Cree is Wabanakiyak 'people of the
dawn, of the east.'
Wapus or wabus means rabbit, that is, the white animal. Hence
Wabasso™ linen and the place in Labrador West District called Wabush
which in the Naskapi language means 'place of rabbits.'