A LITTLE VOCABULARY RIFF

In the Blackfeet language:

“Amo” means “this” as in the phrase “this here,” as if you were  pointing something out or handing something to another person.   “Amoiauk” you would say.

“Ami” means up, upstream,  “Amiaupi” is to mount.  “Amiawani” is to fly up and “amipuk” is air.  

“Amiskapi” means south as in “amiskapi pikuni” which is the branch of the Blackfeet nation that I know and lived among for a while.

“Ana” also means clear and “ikana” means to shine, to be bright, as in “Mistakisz Ikanaziaw”  which means the “shining mountains,” which are the Rockies, where the Blackfeet ended with their backs against the ramparts of the east slope.

“Ama” means to smell.  “Sipazimoi in” means sweetgrass which is a cleansing incense.

“Ani” means to say, to tell, to mind, to obey.  

“Amap” means always.

I only know a little Blackfeet, but I want to learn more, more about it, to say it always clearer, rising up....

And to be there, to say “this here” and be able to gesture at the shining mountains, the sweetgrass, obedient to what is there.

“Amoni” is a breath or puff of wind.

“Ami” means to be the one.

It is I who speaks in this puff of wind.