What was the Dakotaspeaking child to make of a sentence such as “One bright summer’s day Gracie took Zip for a romp in the orchard”? The white child, Riggs noted, would immediately assume that Zip was a dog, but a Santee Sioux would have a different interpretation. The latter would never think of naming a dog; one did not bestow a personal name on something likely to end up in a kettle of soup.
