Origin and meaning of White Eyes...
Apple Loosa
It evidently was
not intended as a derogatory term initially,
but was in recognition of how much whiter the
eyes of anglo-europeans were compared to
those of the indigenous tribes in N.Amer.
Anyone have any more definitive information
on its origins, use, etc?
Also, I'm curious about what the indigenous
tribes thought of the first encounters with
Afro-Amer blacks in "those days?" Were they
also called "white eyes?"
Chris Mark
>It evidently was
>not intended as a derogatory term initially,
>but was in recognition of how much whiter the
>eyes of anglo-europeans were compared to
>those of the indigenous tribes in N.Amer.
From personal observation that doesn't appear to be true.
I wouldn't be surprised if the phrase is a white invention. I remember when I
was stationed in Japan people spoke of the Japanese as calling whites "round
eyes." But in fact the Japanese called whites "ao-me," meaning "blue eyes."
Chris Mark
Greger Hoel
Loosa) wrote:
It could also be a just a language quirk. Here in Northern Norway we
often say "eyes" when meaning the entire face. People from the
southern parts just look dumbfounded when we do that..
--
Greger
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Apple Loosa
says...
>It could also be a just a language quirk. Here in Northern Norway we
>often say "eyes" when meaning the entire face. People from the
>southern parts just look dumbfounded when we do that..
The term "White Eyes" is a specific reference
to eye color. There is also the broader "skin color"
term applied to races; white men, red men, black
men, yellow men. Those are terms commonly used anglos
as far as I know.
I'm not going to quote the entire reference I found
to White Eyes, but my source is RUIDOSO COUNTRY, by Frank
Mangan and the specific chapter in that book titled
"The Mescalero Apaches." In this chapter Mangan is
telling how the present-day Mescalero Reservation
came to be home to other Apache tribes who share the
reservation with the Mescaleros. He is quoting from
historian Eve Ball, who interviewed many of the
remaining warriors in the early part of the 20th
century who were then still living on the nearby
Mescalero Apache Reservation.
Asa Daklugie (the name he took at the Carlisle School)
was a nephew of Chief Geronimo. During his interview
he said to Ball,
"My father was a good man; he killed lots of White Eyes."
Daklugie and another, a Lipan Apache named Philemon Vanego,
both told Ball, "That what impressed them most about white
people (note the difference) was the whites of their eyes.
We don't have that," Vanego said.
"Our eyes are coffee-colored where yours
are white. That is how you got your name White Eyes."
Linda Terrell
live in tents/lodges/tipi/s and/or huts
tend to have yellowish whites in their eyes
because of the smoke from the inside fires.
FYI and FWIW
LT
Apple Loosa
<epxRkhlUwRo0-p...@dialup-67.31.202.22.Dial1.Tampa1.Level3.net>,
lin...@mindspring.com says...
As someone who no longer smokes but must
suffer the "second hand" offerings of those
who do, I'll buy that! But in my case it's
"redness" of the eyes, not "yellowness."
Come to think of it, I once had REALLY yellow
eyes after contracting hepatitus! I'll bet
my eyes are still more yellow than the average
person's who has never had hepatitus.
