kwi'-ats

Updated: May 8, 2025

This is a very common term of endearment used by elder to younger persons. When Kwi'-ats entered he looked about, and not seeing his little friend he searched for him for some time, and still not finding him, he supposed that he must have passed him on the way, and went out again to see if he had stopped or been killed.

John Wesley Powell - Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the: Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,: Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 17-56

The next day he came upon Kwi'-ats, the bear, who was digging a hole in which to hide, for he had heard of the fame of Ta-vwots', and was afraid. When the great slayer came to Kwi'-ats he said, "Don't fear, my great friend; I am not the man from whom to hide. Could a little fellow like me kill so many people?" And the bear was assured.

John Wesley Powell - Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the: Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,: Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 17-56