SSBMI Language Department

Beeteyihí (Storytime)

May      Salmon

You can listen to May in Nisenan and English using the controls below.

May (Salmon) by Tom Cleanso (translated into Nisenan by the SSBMI Language Department)

Hedém mómtim yoonomenín, kayém yakkát’omatoy.

The river used to be like a lake, it did not flow.

Hac’e peením manayím lok’oyéem woololokó woontít’omatoy.

Two boys killed many flickerbirds.

Hac’e mɨ kakám osek’áa siyéet’omatoy p’anaanakám yee, han lehupaytít’omatoy.

Their maternal uncle made ornaments out of the orange-red feathers, and he put these on them.

Han mɨ kakám mómtiná wiimítt’omatoy.

Then their uncle threw them into the river.

Hac’e máyt’omatoy, han mɨyáan mayé kɨyɨsɨ́m p’anaanákt’omatoy.

They became salmon, and that is why salmon’s meat is red.

Han mɨyáan mɨɨm mómtim yoonohó hoyyát’omatoy.

And that is why the river began to flow.

Hac’e mɨ kakám etatán kɨɨpén, “Wenném ismapém maam beyí,” hát’omatoy.

Their uncle watched them and was glad, “You have a good place to live now,” he said.

Mɨɨm mɨyém.

That’s that.

Hesíbe hedém beeteyím? (What is this story?)

This story was told by Tom Cleanso, a.k.a. "Blind Tom", a Nisenan man from the village of Pusúune and one of Pamela Adams's brothers, to anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber in 1929. It was published under the title "Salmon" in the book The Valley Nisenan in English in 1966. In this story, Tom explains how the actions of two boys and their uncle gave May (Salmon) the red color of its meat.

Whether Tom shared this story with Kroeber in Nisenan too, or whether he told it only in English, we do not know. The SSBMI Language Department retitled this story in Nisenan and translated it from English into Nisenan in adapting it to share at Beeteyihí (Storytime), which we did for the first time in August 2023 at Beeteyihí Husladí (Story Time at Small Time). The audio recordings that you can listen to here are of Language Department staff member Jonathan Geary reciting this story.

You can access a pdf copy of this story, along with supplementary learning prompts, by clicking here.

Esak’ábe mi? (Do you know?)

Different Nisenan speakers often speak a little differently from one another. In fact, linguists recognize four main Nisenan dialects:

Tom Cleanso and Pamela Adams speak what is known as "Valley Nisenan", while Bill Joe and other individuals like Ida Starkey speak "Southern Hill Nisenan". Valley Nisenan and Southern Hill Nisenan are very similar to one another (and they are more similar to one another than either is to the other two Nisenan dialects). Because we have more-complete records of how Southern Hill Nisenan is spoken, we often must supplement what we know about Valley Nisenan with information from Southern Hill Nisenan when teaching the Nisenan language.

In translating this story into Nisenan, we used words and grammatical structures that are common to both of these dialects. Where we know that Tom's dialect differs from Southern Hill Nisenan, we used Tom's language. For example, we translated the word 'river' in this story using Tom's and Pamela's word "mómti" rather than the word "sew" which Bill Joe uses. Likewise, we used Tom's word for 'red', "p’anaanák", rather than Bill Joe's similar word "pananák". In doing so, we hoped to stay as true as possible to how Tom would have told his story in Nisenan.