The meaning of the Logo

The problem now was to find a meaning for Dahssy Jattha ... My wife and I made paracord bracelets and american indian chokers, earrings and dream catchers that I sold during the small town markets in Italy and it was an opportunity for me to talk about them to those who showed interest. I spoke and told the things I knew about them. Many people used to come just to listen to what I had to say. Then I decided to make a small Dahssy Jattha logo on my business card that had the head of a hawk and a feather. Very simple and rudimentary. Then a lady who coordinated presentations for a cultural group asked me to give a presentation on American Indians and a very dear friend of mine came to my aid for the work filming some pieces of my presentation. Everything went well and they were enthusiastic. Soon after I found myself giving a second presentation at a primary school. The best experience of my life with childrens. This friend of mine, a sort of Mktg. guru, Helped me to develop the logo that I'm using today for the site. I remember that the only thing he asked me was to explain to him what I wanted to make clear, what message i wanted to send across. So I told him that I wanted to depict something that would show the family, even the extended family of American Indians (the comunity), then the importance of the elderly and children, the wolf that to me represents humility (thanks to the Objibwe) and then the hawk that is tied to my memories with them…

Why the Hawk is important to me ...

Maybe you'll think is funny what I'm about to tell you…., while I was in the US, some of my Cherokee friends joked with me about my glasses. At that time, I often wore my contact lenses and rarely I wore my glasses, I just didn't like to use them in public. On the other hand, my friends who had a great sense of humor, when they saw me wearing them, they grimaced at me and made other facial expressions too. Funny ... "Why these glasses", they asked me, "can you show them to us"? ... "Because I am hypermetropic, farsighted", I answered them. Now, the word farsighted in English can also mean foresight and / or percipient, which means the first, one that foresees the future and the second, one that predicts what is about to happen. In short, as someone who sees things more far away from others ... I, who did not understand that they were playing with me, tried to explain even more about visual problems and added that I saw well from a distance. They, on the other hand, who had understood my naivety continued playing around by telling me: "Yes, we understand that you are someone who is attentive to what is going to happen ..." "No, no, no, is my eyes," I continued, "I am hypermetropic, farsighted". Ahh, you have the vision of the future, you see far ("Ina agohvi" in Cherokee). And the other; "No, you're sharp, perceptive / sharp" ("uktena" in Cherokee). "Yes, yes, you are sharp, like the hawk that sees from the highest point of the sky and recognizes the prey even when it makes the slightest movement". "But, the hawk (hawk = tawodi) does not wear glasses! He is without glasses and you with them" ... And they laughed "Akatena tawodi" ... And they kept saying other words in English and in Cherokee, which I do not remember, while they continued to laugh at me... In the end, I realised they were joking and we all started laughing. I never received a name ceremony for them. Although, sometimes they have two names. They have a name like our first name, so to speak, given by an old woman or a Beloved Woman after birth. Growing up, it is possible that they can earn a second name, thanks to the good deeds they have done. I like to think that this kind of nickname that they gave me, Uktena (sharp = acute) like Tawody (Hawk = Falco), akatena tawodi is my second/earned name. I like the idea of being able to look like the hawk! I like to think that for them it was a perceptive falcon or a hawk that sees in the distance, a keensighted hawk ... But, since they had a good sense of humor and made fun of me, maybe I was for them "The falcon that wears glasses to see well"! A kind of hawk with visual problems ... Anyway, my heart is that of Akatena Tawodi (or, tawodi akatena) ...