How Do You Say “Hello”?©

An incident on the trip to Fort Wayne, March 28^th, 1804 from, A Mission to the Indians, from the Indians Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, p 43-44

The year is 1776, or is it 1759 or 1792 and you are walking a forest path between Cherry Valley and Newtown-Martin, when you come upon several Native Americans: you reach out to shake their hands, but how do you say “Hello”?

 Many English colonists and Native Americans, who lived in the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, were able to speak at least a few words or phrases in the other’s language, and the greeting that they used would reflect what they spoke and what they thought the other person would understand.

 A Native American greeting on the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio would be “Sago”, which means, “how do” or “welcome”¹ and to which might be added the term “niches”, or “brothers”²: the whole greeting would be “Sago niches” or “Sago, sago niches”.  According to two sources, “sago” is an Iroquois word³; however, the North American Review noted that the Algonquin word for friend was “nitis” and the Archæologia Americana recorded the Algonquin Abenaki word for friend as “nitsie” ⁴, both of which are very close in form to “niches”.  The evidence for the origin of this phrase, which was widely used on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, is unclear.

 An English colonial greeting would be “How do” or “How do brother”⁵.  Interestingly, the source materials note that the Native Americans pronounced the th-sound in “brother” with a dee-sound, saying “broder” or “brodder”⁶.  Perhaps the Native Americans learned this greeting from the Dutch settlers of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and their pronunciation therefore reflects the Dutch pronunciation of the word “broeder”⁷.  “How do” was a common greeting among English colonists of the day and is the origin of “Howdy”

 So when we next meet, we will shake hands and say “Sago, niches” and “How do brodder”!

 Notes:

¹ Jeptha Root Simms, History of Schoharie County and the Border Wars of New York, (Munsell & Tanner, Albany [1845]) p. 306, and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois: (Bartlett & Welford, New York [1846]) p. 209, and History of Oneida County, New York (Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia [1878]) p. 366, and Elijah Middlebrook Haines, The American Indian (Uh-nish-in-na-ba), (The Mas-Sin-Na’-Gan Company, Chicago [1888]), p 778

² Gerard T. Hopkins, A Mission to the Indians, from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, (T. Ellwood Zell, Philadelphia [1862]) p 43-44

³ “SAGO, an Iroquois word of the Mohawk dialect”, from Elijah Middlebrook Haines, The American Indian (Uh-nish-in-na-ba), (The Mas-Sin-Na’-Gan Company, Chicago [1888]), p 778, [Sago appears to be an anglicized version of the Mohawk word “sekoh”, pronounced SEH-goh, meaning welcome – Author’s note], and “At the Indian village of Kanadaseago, [a Seneca village – Author’s note] situated a little distance west of Geneva, a white male child was found…not more than three or four years old… and when accosted could only say, sago – how do”, from Jeptha Root Simms, History of Schoharie County and the Border Wars of New York, (Munsell & Tanner, Albany [1845]) p. 306. 

⁴ North American Review, Vol. XXVI (Frederick T. Gray, Boston [1828]), p. 380, and Archæologia Americana, Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. II, (University Press, Cambridge [1836]), p. 311

⁵ Jay Gould, History of Delaware County: And Border Wars of New York, (Keeny & Gould, Roxbury [1856]) p. 75-76

⁶ Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, (published by Henry Howe, Cincinnati [1854]), p 269, and Nathaniel Parker Willis, Esq., American Scenery, Vol II, (George Virtue, London [1840]), p 65


⁷ Willem Séwel, A Large Dictionary English and Dutch, (Evert Visscher, Amsterdam [1727]), p 66 

References:

 Jay Gould, History of Delaware County: And Border Wars of New York, (Keeny & Gould, Roxbury [1856]) p. 75-76, reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=MfgpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA75&dq=%22how+do+you+do+Brothers%22+delaware&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK6e_34-XdAhWtVN8KHVSTAQUQ6AEIPzAE#v=onepage&q=%22how%20do%20you%20do%20Brothers%22%20delaware&f=false, (accessed 10/1/2018)

Gerard T. Hopkins, A Mission to the Indians, from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, (T. Ellwood Zell, Philadelphia [1862]) p 43-44 reprinted https://books.google.com/books?id=SB4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA44&dq=%22how+do+you+do+Brothers%22+delaware&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK6e_34-XdAhWtVN8KHVSTAQUQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q=%22how%20do%20you%20do%20Brothers%22%20delaware&f=false, (accessed 10/1/2018)

Jeptha Root Simms, History of Schoharie county and the Border Wars of New York, (Munsell & Tanner, Albany [1845]) p. 306, reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=AcA4AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22History+of+Schoharie+county+%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEws7v1OrdAhUyTd8KHeTnBvUQ6AEIQjAF#v=onepage&q=%22History%20of%20Schoharie%20county%20%22&f=false, (accessed 10/2/2018)

Elijah Middlebrook Haines, The American Indian (Uh-nish-in-na-ba), (The Mas-Sin-Na’-Gan Company, Chicago [1888]), p 778 reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=1CMUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA778&dq=%22sago%22+ohio+indian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9huKf0-XdAhXJneAKHd5GAlkQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22sago%22%20ohio%20indian&f=false, (accessed 10/1/2018)

Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, (published by Henry Howe, Cincinnati [1854]), p 269, reprinted in https://ia800200.us.archive.org/24/items/historicalcollect00inhowe/historicalcollect00inhowe.pdf, (accessed 10/2/2018)

Willem Séwel, A Large Dictionary English and Dutch, (Evert Visscher, Amsterdam [1727]), p 66 reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=taBlAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA66&dq=brother+%22A+Large+Dictionary+English+and+Dutch%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiK4NLi0erdAhWLm1kKHaKlCEgQ6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q=brother%20%22A%20Large%20Dictionary%20English%20and%20Dutch%22&f=false, (accessed 10/1/2018)

Archæologia Americana, Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. II, (University Press, Cambridge [1836]), p. 311 reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=XBM_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR5&dq=%22Arch%C3%A6ologia+Americana%22+%22Volume+II%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwib343v0ujdAhWwTN8KHQS-ADAQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22Arch%C3%A6ologia%20Americana%22%20%22Volume%20II%22&f=false, (accessed 10/2/2018)

History of Oneida County, New York (Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia [1878]) p. 366, reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=dPYpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA366&dq=%22sago%22+mohawk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW7cqpj-rdAhUMRKwKHZ8xBJI4ggEQ6AEIWjAJ#v=onepage&q=%22sago%22%20mohawk&f=false, (accessed 10/3/2018)

North American Review, Vol. XXVI (Frederick T. Gray, Boston [1828]), p. 380 reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=cqRKAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP13&dq=%22North+American+Review,+Vol.+XXVI%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjat-Wi0ujdAhVkg-AKHcqYAeIQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22North%20American%20Review%2C%20Vol.%20XXVI%22&f=false, (accessed 10/2/2018)

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois: (Bartlett & Welford, New York [1846]) p. 209 https://books.google.com/books?id=wHQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209&dq=%22sago%22+mohawk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd7-OSi-rdAhVM0FMKHYu7C_Q4jAEQ6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&q=%22sago%22%20mohawk&f=false, (accessed 10/2/2018)

Nathaniel Parker Willis, Esq., American Scenery, Vol II, (George Virtue, London [1840]), p 65, reprinted in https://books.google.com/books?id=xOMg-B1-dJEC&pg=PA65&dq=%22how+do+broder%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2p7SCierdAhVpUd8KHfu0CcUQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=%22how%20do%20broder%22&f=false , (accessed10/3/2018)