To redescribe the country in their private language was also to take ownership of it. “I understand now why the racists want everyone to speak only English,” Sancho told Quichotte. “They don’t want these other words to have rights over the land.” That launched Quichotte into a new elaboration of his “Indian country” trope. “Once there were other words with rights,” he said. “Words belonging to those other Indians. Now sometimes those words are just sounds with lost meanings. Shenandoah, unknown Native origin. At other times the meaning remains but nobody knows it, which denies the word its
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