Quapaw Language Department Blog

Valentine's Day in Okáxpa

Posted February 3rd, 2025

Mary Jacobs, our department's director, illustrated a handful of Valentine's Day memes to share with friends and family. Although Valentine's Day originates from Anglican Europe and has no history within our tribe, our tribal members often celebrate American holidays such as these. There are four memes: each one contains a word or phrase in Quapaw and an equivalent English translation. We have included details of our translations in the captions below each image. Feel free to save these memes and share them with your loved ones this Valentine's season! 💕

This image epicts a hand-drawn illustration of two Native Americans in traditional Plains attire. The man has his arm around the woman and they have hearts drawn on their clothes. They stand against a background of pale red hearts. The Quapaw phrase, 'Ąkoža tteá' is written above the couple, and the English translation, 'let's dance' sits below the phrase.
Ąkoža tteá is a commanding phrase which means, "let's (you and I) dance."

Ąkoža tteá is a great phrase to say to your crush at the Pow-Wow when you just have to dance with them. In our traditions, the woman in the couple would ask the man to dance, but we don't discriminate here. Use this phrase to tell your partner, no matter who they are, that they have no choice but to get out there and two step with you. Remember, ąkoža tteá is not a question or invitation to dance, you're commanding them to dance with you! 👯

This image depicts a hand-drawn illustration of puckered, cartoonish red lips against a background of pale red hearts. The Quapaw words, 'íha kikdé' sit above the lips in a scrawly font with the English word, 'kiss' below them.

The phrase íha kikdé means, "to kiss." The noun íha represents the mouth, while the verb kikdé indicates a joining with the subject of the phrase. Literally, this translates as, "joining mouths together." Not quite as catchy as "kiss," so we used the most memorable English translation in the meme.

This image depicts a hand-drawn illustration of Cupid, but with the physical features of a Native American with dark-toned skin, moccasins, and long black braids. He is drawing an arrow back from his bow and flies against a sky background. The Quapaw phrase, 'žokdé wakíde' is spelled above his head, accompanied by its English translation, 'couple connector.'
Žokdé Wakíde roughly translates as the "Couple Connector" and serves as a Quapaw take on the idea of Cupid.

Žokdé Wakíde is an interesting phrase which represents the idea of Cupid in Okáxpa. We Quapaws have no mythical figure in our oral tradition that serves a similar function as the trickster matchmaker, so our department decided to run with a simple description of someone who causes others to go out with one another. The full phrase literally means, "one who causes them to be together." Creating this phrase was a process which we completed together as a department.

We started with the word žokdé. This verb literally translates as, "to be with someone," or "to be together." We wanted to then convey that there was a person who caused the people (couple) to be together with one another, so we constructed the phrase wakíde to go with it. The root causative of the phrase, -kíde, is a verb which means, "to cause one's own" and must be combined with a prefix to have complete meaning. The prefix in question, wa-, has many different meanings. However, the main function of wa- is to indicate a plural number of objects, and in this case it simply performs in English equivalency as, "them."

So all together, Žokdé Wakíde literally means, "one who causes them (those people) to be with one another." Obviously this phrase isn't quite as catchy in English as it is in our Okáxpa ié, so we came up with the alliterative translation, "Couple Connector," to serve as a more memorable translation for those who see this short-form meme.

This image depicts a hand-drawn illustration of a Native American wearing a headdress and feather, holding out a handful of Valentine's heart-shaped candy, against a pink-and-white spiral background. The word, 'waskíde' appears below the drawing of the boy. The English translated word, 'candy' appears below the caption.

Waskíde is a noun which colloquially translates as "sweets" in English. However, waskíde can indicate any kind of sweet treat, like fruits or candy.

Illustrations created by Mary Jacobs. Article written by Tehya Deardorff.