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[STATEMENT] .I FEAR THE FUTURE PROMISED | BUILT | EXIST LOST IN THE DARK [END STATEMENT]

"It's nice." - Louis de Pointe du Lac

Hello!

This address is on Susquehannock (Conestoga, Minquas, Minkas, Menkwe, Andaste, Andastoerrhonon) land where a number of landmarks are named after them, like the Susquehanna River Valley. Sadly, we no longer have record of the name they would have called themselves. We do know why they were referred to by so many names; the Susquehannock were prominently known in the region by indigenous nations and colonizers alike, especially since they were known to lead trade. Each group they interacted with earned them another name. Although the Susquehannock, the most popular name, are widely documented, we have only about 100 words of their language (named to match whichever name for the people is in use in that context) left recorded. None of the words we have are greetings, and as far as we know there are no Susquehannock speakers to ask. Bonus: koonae means big, jáse means small, and onusse means house.

Avarunsi for participating!

Sources:

Native Americans in Pennsylvania by Caleb Himmele and Dr. Chuck Geiger of Millersville University of Pennsylvania (2023)

Indigenous Peoples of Pennsylvania on Society for Pennsylvania Archeology

History of Susquehannock State Park on Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Gardner Digital Library

Susquehannock on Wikipedia

Stalking the Susquehannocks by Marianne Mithun for the International Journal of American Linguistics (1981)

Svenskt och Engelskt lexicon by Gustaf Widegren (1788)

Ofwersatt på American- Virginiske språket. Lutheri Catechismus by Johannes Campanius (1696)

A Short Description of the Province of New Sweden by Thomas Campanius Holm (1702, translated 1834)

And a lot of people would rather keep it unfinished and perfect in their head than done and flawed and out there. an unfinished draft can still be anything. once you finish it, it becomes one specific thing with specific failures that specific people can point to. so you keep tweaking. you keep saying it's not ready. you go back to the beginning again.