385: apache, ojibwa, and dakota Dec 28, 2015

Indigenous peoples from the Americas and Oceania did not fare well with colonization. Although probably the least of their concerns, many names of the peoples were misunderstood, or misrepresentative, and then just stuck. 'Apache' comes through Mexican Spanish, probably from the Zuni word 'Apachu', meaning literally ‘enemy.’ Ojibwa comes from the Ojibwa word 'očipwē', meaning ‘puckered,’ as a reference to their style of moccasins. 'Dakota' comes from the name in Dakota, which literally means ‘allies’.