I learned that Dallis is Cherokee on his mother’s side and Seminole on his father’s. He lives in Tampa Bay so he can be near his son who works nearby. I asked his name, then spent the next few minutes getting the pronunciation correct. The name sounds very much like the Texas city, Dallas. However, unlike Dallas, which stresses the first syllable, his name, Dallis stresses the last. A nuance my Bronx ears strained to grasp.
I readily agreed when he asked if I would like to know how he got that name and I was enthralled listening to him recount the story. As is common with most Indigenous Americans, tradition is highly valued. One such tradition of the Cherokee people is for the child’s mother to place her infant on a blanket on the ground when relatives and friends came by with gifts for the baby. One such gift was a pair of baby shoes, which my new friend grasped and shook like it was a rattle. The guests roared their approval, and he was promptly dubbed Dallis. In the Cherokee language, Dallis means, ‘he who walks with shoes’.
See the Human Family Group for more encounters and photos with former strangers at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/pool/">www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/pool/</a> - it is well worth your visit!
