• can
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    6 months ago

    Slavey or just Slave is a translation of Awokanak,[2] the name given to Dene by the Cree “who sometimes raided and enslaved their less aggressive northern neighbors”.[3][4][5] The names of the Slave River, Lesser Slave River, Great Slave Lake, and Lesser Slave Lake all derive from this Cree nam

    The name Slavey is seldom used by the people themselves, who call themselves Dene. Indigenous ethnonyms for South Slavey people and language are Dehcho, Deh Cho Dene (“Mackenzie River People”) or Dene Tha.[6]

    Not really any better

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      Did you know that the word “slave” comes from the late Latin word scalvus, meaning “slav”? This is because the overwhelming majority of slaves were slavic prisoners, so “slav” just became synonymous with forced laborer

      • can
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        6 months ago

        I did not know that. How depressing, thanks.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          6 months ago

          Slavic history is absolutely wild with stuff like that. Eastern Europe has seen countless mass movements of people through it ranging from peaceful Romani migration from India to Operation Barbarossa torching, killing, and raping everything between Gdansk and Moscow.

          Life in Eastern Europe has always been hard, and i really do admire the people that continue to live there after 3 thousand years of pillaging, plagues, famine, and genocide from all directions.i once had a history professor describe Eastern Europe as “the world’s genetic dumping ground” which is pretty brutal, but fairly apt.