Thursday, November 14, 2019

Arrokoth: HONORING POWHATAN PEOPLE


In National Native American Heritage Month, we in the original DC, VA, NC, MD and the Chesapeake thank NASA in helping us to honor the people whose Powhatan Algonquian language, including our words like "caucus", which we continue to use on our Capitol Hill. And now, our term Arrokoth has become their newly named heavenly body.

Arrokoth = Sky


Illustration: Of the path taken to the newly discovered sky body "2014 MU69", renamed Arrokoth. Including images of Washington DC's Pamunkey Native artist Georgia Mills Jessup (representing *Cockacoeske, the Queen of Pamunkey), and the star-like Powhatan’s Mantle.

On the 12th Day of this National Native American Heritage Month in the Nation’s Capital, the Northern Powhatan Territory, NASA conducted a naming ceremony. In a fitting tribute to the farthest flyby ever conducted by spacecraft, the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 has been officially named Arrokoth, a Native American term meaning "sky" in the Powhatan Algonquian language. 

As the Indigenous people of the Founding of America, this naming event was also appropriate, since "Powhatan" means "Dreamer", a fitting concept for the fulfilling of the aspirations of our Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Naming ceremony: