OK is a word of indigenous origin (Choctaw)

 

The term OK has become internationalized and is used all over the world and in different languages. The origin of the word has been attributed to a rather unusual ironic expression "oll korrect" or to a military expression O killed. Much more likely is the hypothesis that establishes its origin in the language of the Choctaw nation that was the language of relationship (lingua franca) between the indigenous and settlers of central and southern North America in the colonial period. In Choctaw Oke means "done deal", "like this". As usual, the descendants of the invaders consciously or unconsciously reject the indigenous roots of their customs and idiomatic expressions. In other words, the word OK is of Native American origin. It is worth knowing to draw the curtains of hiding and cultural genocide on this continent. We include it as one more piece of information in our book "Amerrique, the Orphans of Paradise". Here is a transcript of a site that raises the etymology of OK.

"The" Dictionary of the Choctaw Language "published in 1915 gives the first evidence of that. As a Christian missionary working with the Mississippi Choctaw, author Cyrus Byington cataloged the language of the people extensively. According to him and even more published dictionaries Later, "Okeh" meant "it is so and not otherwise." So the origin of the word comes down to a Native American etymology. "

http://www.swagger.mx/radar/cual-es-el-origen-de-la-palabra-ok

The Choctaw people

The Choctaw are an indigenous nation of North America that extended through southern North America in the eastern portion of the Mississippi River basin and is now reduced to about 160,000 individuals in various reservations in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. They speak a language of the Muscogean family that was used as a lingua franca throughout the southeastern region of North America to the Gulf of Mexico and east to the Atlantic littoral region. Several expressions of the Choctaw language were incorporated into North American English such as the word okei (which meant "done deal") and from that language to the rest of the world.

Originally, they lived on the banks of the Yazoo River (lower Mississippi) and west of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers in an area of ​​200,000 km2 Like other peoples of southeastern North America, they practiced agriculture of corn, pumpkins, beans , sunflower and tobacco. They lived in thatched roof houses made of logs or bark and covered with mud.

As tools for cultivation they used buffalo bone canes to remove the earth and plant the seeds, while for digging they used utensils made with the shoulder blade of a buffalo or a carved stone attached to a cane. They built granaries where they stored the products of the harvest. Fishing was communal, with nets, bow and arrows or by throwing numbing substances into the water. Like other peoples of the North American region, they used bows, arrows and spears as weapons. Like other tribes of North America, they celebrated the ceremony of green corn (busk) for which they had built ritual temples in the city of Nanih Waiya, created around the year 500 AD.

They had a special body of priests that was in charge of cleaning the bones and leaving them without meat. The clean bones were kept in an ossuary, on which was a catafalque with hunting scenes, crowns and images engraved to assist the spirits. When it was full of bones, a feast was held for the dead and the bones were buried in a conical mound of earth. They played ishtaboli, called lacrosse by the French and chunckey by the English, a ball game similar to hockey with a fur ball and rackets called kapucha, or with a round puck.

The first Europeans to arrive in their territory were the Spanish from the expedition of Hernando de Soto, who called them chaetas. From that visit there was a great mortality and its population decreased to less than half. In 1673 their lands were invaded by the French who in 1699 built Fort Maurepas, as well as the towns of Mobile (1702) and Fort Rosalie in 1716. Towards the year 1746 they rebelled against the French allying with the colonial government of Carolina del South.

The conflict would end with the execution of the caudillo, after which they were forced to submit again to the French colonial authorities. After the French defeat in the war of 1756-1760, they were forced to cede territory to the British and in 1780 they were forced to move west. At the time they lived in 60 or 70 villages on the banks of the Pearl, Pascagoula and Chickasawhay rivers. On January 3, 1786, they signed the Treaty of Hopewell with the colonists of the United States, by which they declared "perpetual peace", a treaty that was renewed in 1792.

For this reason, they did not help the English in the war of 1812. In any case, as usual, the treaty was not complied with and they were forced to cede land to the United States.

In 1801 by the Treaty of Fort Adams they had to cede the canton of Mississippi; in 1803 by the Treaty of Hoe Buckintopae, they had to cede all of Alabama (853,760 acres); in 1805 by the Treaty of Mound Dexter, 4,142,720 more acres were to be ceded between southern Alabama and Mississippi; in 1816 by the Treaty of Fort Saint Stephens, the external part of the Tombigbee River (Alabama), which was about 3 million acres; and in 1820 for Doak’s Strand, 5,169,788 acres more. With all this they were practically stripped of all their territories. Yet another treaty of 1825 signed by Chief Mushulatubbee gave them another 2 million acres in exchange for not having the land distributed to them.

In 1831 some 14,000 Choctaw were forced to cross the Mississippi and some 2,500 died in transit from hunger and cholera. Furthermore, they did not pay the compensation they had been promised. In Oklahoma they would rebuild schools, churches and courts, and even create a militia.

During the US Civil War they supported the South, from which they were forced to sign a new treaty in 1866, being limited to a restricted reserve. In 1907 the Choctaw reservation was parceled into individual properties, and the remainder sold to whites. In 1944 they were recognized as a tribe and 16,000 acres returned. In 1960 some 17,500 Choctaw still lived on tribal lands, in a kind of informal reservation.

Demography

It is estimated that in 1650 there were about 15,000 individuals. By 1780 there were about 20,000 individuals in 60 or 70 populations. In 1872 there were 16,000, in 1885 about 12,816, and in 1890 about 10,017, and by 1900 they counted 25,000, of which 18,981 lived in Oklahoma and 1,639 in Mississippi.

According to data from 1990 there were a total of 45,000 tribal Choctaw, of which 8,100 lived in Mississippi, 27,500 in Oklahoma, and 11,200 in California, Louisiana and other states. Their language, however, was spoken by about 12,000 individuals in 1980. Finally, according to the 2000 census, there were 158,774 Choctaw.

Currently, the Choctaw nation lives on seven reservations in the state of Mississippi, some in Louisiana and the rest in Oklahoma.