How come Native American names get translated when most names from various non-European cultures either get transliterated or rendered phonetically?
>>1322401
I am sure that would depend entirely upon the fact that Americans show no remorse for their actions.
I went to school with a descendant of this guy.
He had a setup with loads of miniatures of the battle. It was pretty autistic but also kind of cool.
>>1322401
They're too hard for English speakers to pronounce. For an extreme example, [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬɬs] is a valid word in Nuxalk, spoken in British Columbia.
>>1322471
Isn't that true of many names from loads of other cultures that nobody bothers translating into their English meanings, though?
Not my work, but found this on Quora:
The answer to the question about modern practice is 'convention'. In general awareness Native American names have the form of 'Epithet Object/Animal' such as 'Red Cloud' or 'Crazy Horse'. Therefore you will see activities like children picking 'Native American Names' in this format. This is puzzling (or possibly even traumatising) to actual Native American children who're just as likely to be called George or Bill as anything else.
Many would claim (with some justification) that this convention has the result of creating the exotic other and minimizes the achievements of Native Americans as well as the malign impact of the intruders who are now the 'natives' of the land.
What are the origins of this convention? This would need a detail study of the sources but I suspect that it goes back to the Sioux Wars because all the most famous Native Americans known by their 'translated' names are Lakota (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud). They were made further famous by cultural efforts such as Buffalo Bill Wild West show. All the prominent natives of earlier eras are known by names approximating the sounds of the original language (Squanto, Pocahontas, Hiawatha, Geronimo, Tecumseh, Seattle, etc.) But it's possible that the tradition goes further back (and I'm sure the various ins and outs are far more complex).
Why the names of people like Sitting Bull were translated rather than used in their original form is not clear to me (I couldn't find any research). But one reason could be their particularly expressive nature when compared to other native naming conventions. It could also be that their bearers chose to translate them when communicating with English speakers.
