OPINION
Who is a Niiji
From the Ojibway
Language Society Miinawaa Forum posted March 31,2007 Posting # 7253
A young man walked into the
room and said to his friend "Hello Niiji." The word Niiji was a new
word for most of the English speaking people in the room. Then the
two young men started talking. The young men appeared to be
aboriginal and their conversation faded blending into the numerous
conversations between everyone in the room.
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A Siberian aboriginal young man translated into English a letter
from his father to an aboriginal elder in Canada. The letter said:
"Greetings to all the Niiji people." In his reply the elder wrote
Niiji before his name. Similarly to the question about a craftsman
what his nationality was the people that knew his said he was a
Niiji.
One cannot but stop and ask who is a Niiji. After looking into
dictionaries and language books a Native person came and said Niiji
means friend in his language. He was from the Anishinabek people.
The word Niiji means friend but it carries more than just that
meaning in our time. When it gets confusing and complicated to
explain that a person is called an Indian but not from India yet a
Native American and when then things get really tangled up if the
person is not an American but from Canada or Mexico, the five letter
word Niiji solves it all. Aboriginal people on the continent of
North America who are known as Indians are Niiji.