Odds and Ends > Etcetera
The Word "Aho"
Sizzle Flambé:
--- Quote from: earthw7 on December 18, 2009, 03:38:09 pm ---I asked around and it is not Lakota....
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This Lakota-English/English-Lakota Dictionary doesn't list aho, but it does list haho = "Look at this!" or "Hey, look here!"; and hahó hahó = Gratitude and Joy for a gift (p.xxxii; or see page 76); and ho = "Yes, all right" (interjection of affirmation).
So it's not that one word means all these things; they are just homonyms, sound-alikes.
"Hello" is hau, "Amen" is nunwe.
wolfhawaii:
"Aho" is pretty common in powwow circles and has been adopted by the "talking circle" bunch; I heard it was from the Kiowa. "Ho" is used as an affirmative in certain Cherokee ceremonial circumstances. Now I guess we'll hear from the wannabes.......Ho! Ho! Ho! I guess Santa was Cherokee :)
Defend the Sacred:
--- Quote from: wolfhawaii on December 19, 2009, 08:40:18 pm ---"Aho" is pretty common in powwow circles and has been adopted by the "talking circle" bunch; I heard it was from the Kiowa. "Ho" is used as an affirmative in certain Cherokee ceremonial circumstances. Now I guess we'll hear from the wannabes.......Ho! Ho! Ho! I guess Santa was Cherokee :)
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"Ho" was the standard affirmative, multi-purpose response used by Vincent LaDuke/Sun Bear's crew ("The Bear Tribe"), and by people of every imaginable ethnicity (but mostly white nuagers) at his "Medicine Wheel" gatherings. People left those events "Ho"-ing like Santa.
From that gathering in 1984 I watched it spread through all sorts of Neopagan and Nuage circles, with people saying it repeatedly whenever they wanted to affirm something that someone said. It was especially common when the nons were mimicking an NDN ceremony, though they said it in other sorts of rituals, too. *cringes in retrospect*
Moma_porcupine:
Doing a google search on "Kiowa" and "Aho" it sounds like Aho is a Kiowa word for Thankyou.
I copied what I found below, but when I click on both these links what was listed in the google search doesn't seem to come up .
--- Quote ---[PDF] Microsoft PowerPoint - Kiowa Tribe Env Overview for EPA DVC Part I File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
AHO means thank you in our Kiowa language. • Thank you for sharing your concerns and knowledge for our Mother Earth and the environment which provides ...
www.epa.gov/Region6/6dra/oejta/tribalaffairs/dvc/kiowapresentation.pdf
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--- Quote ---Religion-Centered Anecdotes of Ft. Sill by JT Bratcher - 1964
the Kiowas all jumped up and began yelling "Aho-aho, aho-aho!"-meaning. "Thank you!" The interpreter had got things confused and the Indians thought ...
www.jstor.org/stable/1520673
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So I guess Aho probably is Thank you in the Kiowa language.
But I am left wondering how and why this Kiowa word would become such a common expression in the pan Indian community? Is "Aho" a modification of Sun Bear using the word "Ho"? Or was there maybe a very respected Kiowa Spiritual leader who used this word and it spread? Or was the word Aho used in some popular movie like Billy Jack or Little Big Man or Powwow Highway and it spread from there ?
This seems like a good example of how pan indian versions of indigenous cultures can take root and then become widespread and then suddenly one day people realize no one actually knows what they are doing, or saying or why...
I guess then people say Oh oh
???
earthw7:
Thank you I knew it was not lakota
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