Kalispell

This story uses a Kalispell pronoun form for which there is no English equivalent. Linguists call this an "object-focus-form"; it identifies the person referred to as the significant agent of an action even when not grammatically the sentence subject. It is as if in English we could substitute "hem" for "him" in the sentence, "The arrow struck hem in the shoulder," to indicate that the man shot was nevertheless the most important person in the action. Many Indian languages possess analogous linguistic characteristics that are not part of English, nor any Indo-European language. This makes translation hideously difficult. In this story, for instance, the object-focus-form is skillfully used as a rhetorical device to reinforce the psychological and moral superiority of the threatened young man Rabbit to both convention-bound women and the bully Thunder. It also is used to develop the theme of compassion, imagining oneself in the position, physical, social, psychological, of another, a central motif in a great many Native American stories. Hear a young protagonist pities his age-afflicted grandmother, announces his intention of finding her a helper, and does so by [kidnapping] another man's wife for himself. Young Rabbit says what he is going to do and then does it. Speech shapes reality for the socially responsible person. His chosen wife is afraid for his live, but his assurance never wavers. Her companions resist his violation of convention as fruitlessly as Thunder with his noisily ineffective assault. The youth frightens the blustering bully by looking him coolly in the eye, proving himself the better man - and therefore the better husband. Had Thunder behaved with sensible courtesy by speaking before acting, he would not have lost, nor deserved to lose, his wife. Conventions (such as marriage) that give essential structure to communal life possess meaningful reality only when sustained by strong personal feeling expressed by unequivocal speech and behavior. Fearlessly saying what we mean and behaving exactly as we say we assure the productive balance by which individual desires truly fulfill the purposes of social institutions - even when fundamental regulations appear to be violated.

From Kroeber

http://www.kalispeltribe.com/

http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/viewPage.cgi?showp=1&size=2&id=nai.07.book.00000087&volume=7