Re: [OT]Dog soldiers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn M Wilson" <triphibious@juno.com>
> On Thu, 6 Dec 2001 12:31:47 -0500 "Tomb" <tomb@dreammechanics.com>
> >4) (USMC) Marines are "Marines", not "Soldiers". Soldiers are Army. I
> >know Marines refer to the Army (or have) as "Doggies" (or <expletive>
> >Doggies). I have heard Army soldiers called "Dog Soldiers" before.

> 2)One or more of the Plains indians (First Americans/Native
Americans/or
> their nation's word for some version of "The People" - take your PC
> pick.)
>
> Some warrior societies  (age graded or non-age graded)  were "Dog
> soldiers."

Also, some plains Indians (Certainly the Sioux / Lakota) called horses
"Big
Dogs"
"dog" is "sunka", "horse" is "sunka wakan"

"Why?" you may ask. How can you associate a dog and a horse ?
Remember, the Indians didn't know any horses. They used their dogs to
carry
stuff and to pull their tent poles. This is what a horse also does,
hence
they called them "Big Dogs".

Source for this, the novel "Hanta Yo", which has a failry extensive
Lakota
glossary, also the Sioux website:
http://www.lakhota.com/page3.htm#Wildlife

Cavalry would then logically be "Dog Soldiers".

Another possible link Army-Dog is the "Dog Tag" identification chips
(BTW,
what's the official militarese for these ?) carried by soldiers, so
called
because they resemble the tags used to mark registered dogs. BTW. the
same
term ("Hundemarke") is used in the Bundeswehr.

Greetings