'uleeki

Luiseño

Alternative forms

• uluqui (Spanish-influenced spelling)

Noun

'uleeki

1. second-person singular possessive of leekil (“vulva”)

Usage notes

Gerónimo Boscana mistook this term as a synonym (used among the inland/mountain Luiseño) of cuit; following him, several other works on native terms for "two-spirits" erroneously included it as such.

References

• Chinigchinich (Chi-ñićh-ñich) (1933), page 170, says: “To distinguish this detested race,” Fr. Boscana tells us, “at this mission of San Juan Capistrano they were called 'Cuit,' in the mountains 'Uluqui,' and in other parts they were known as 'Coias.'” [...] The phrase "in the mountains" is to be taken with the word that follows it, "Uluqui." Boscana means to say that in the mission dialect culeado is called kuyt, and in the inland dialect "Uluqui." The latter is for 'uleeki, your vulva, second person singular possessive of leekil, vulva, and is not the inland (Temescal-Elsinore) dialectic form for culeado at all.