Báxoje love poem

Love poem translated into Báxoje Jiwére-Ñút^achi (Baxoje, Chiwere, Iowa, Ioway, Jiwele, Jiwere, Missouri, Missouria, Niutaji, Nyut'chi, Oto, Otoe, Iowa-Oto-Missouria, Otoe-Missouria, Iowa-Oto, Ioway-Otoe, Chewere), a Siouan language.

Baxoje is the Chiwere dialect of Iowa people, the other two ioway dialects being the nyutachi and jiwere, respectively spoken by the Missouria and the Otoe. The Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), the language of the Winnebagos is very close.

If actually there are not more 1200 Otoe, Missouria and Ioway, their three dialects are considered extinct since the death of the last real speaker, died more than 20 years ago, so they are no longer spoken. But there are still some people (5 or 6) like Jimm GoodTracks who try to keep the memory of Chewere language through the baxoje dialect.

Iowa (Baxoje) is therefore a moribund Siouan language and it is the dialect of the Iowas tribes, of Perkins in Oklahoma, of Kansas and Nebraska at White Cloud, Kansas.

The State of Iowa as being the traditional, original home of the Ioway, although now it is going on two hundred years since the government obliged them to leave for reservations, first in Missouri than Kansas-Nebraska. In 1880, About 100 traditional Ioway left the KS/NB reservation and immigrated to Oklahoma in an effort to preserve their human right to live as a sovereign independent autonoumous people with their own language, culture and lifeways.

The Iowa, Missouria, Otoe, Omaha and Ponca, were formerly part of the Winnebagos (Ho-Chunk) group.

Jimm Goodtracks preferred to translate the first two verses by "Your reflexion in the water - Is my most beautiful word" because in indigenous cultures, the use of mirrors was unknown before the arrival of whites. After this arrival, the languages of the indigenous peoples composed new words for the new objects they discovered.

Amerindian languages being verbally creative, often related to nature, the new term is a descriptive word. In Báxoje, Jiwére, the term for Mirror is "wáárakisda" (literally: something you see yourself). The "wa" (somehing) can be dropped to say "arákisda" (reflection).

In similar manner, the word "poem" does not exist in either language, as each language/ culture, in their own written and oral literature traditions have their own unique manner of expression, rather than being a copy of a foreign/ alien European expression. Yes, they did and still do have an equivalent for poetic and prose expression, but on their own terms.

For the Báxoje, Jiwére oral literature is seen in their traditional songs and "WéKan" (Traditional Sacred Winter stories), in part, written in Roman script with English or Latin translations written in the 1800's and early 1900's.