Aquiline nose

An aquiline nose (also called a Roman nose or hook nose) is a human nose with a prominent bridge, giving it the appearance of being curved or slightly bent. The word aquiline comes from the Latin word aquilinus ("eagle-like"), an allusion to the curved beak of an eagle. While some have ascribed the aquiline nose to specific ethnic, racial, or geographic groups, and in some cases associated it with other supposed non-physical characteristics (i.e. intelligence, status, personality, etc., see below), no scientific studies or evidence support any such linkage. As with many phenotypical expressions (i.e. 'widow's peak', eye color, earwax type) it is found in many geographically diverse populations.

Distribution

Although the aquiline nose is found among people from nearly every area of the world, it is generally associated with and thought to be more frequent in certain ethnic groups originating from Southern Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. Some writers in the field of racial typology have attributed aquiline noses as a characteristic of different peoples or races; e.g.: according to anthropologist Jan Czekanowski, it is most frequently found amongst members of the Oriental race and Armenoid race. However, it is also often seen in the Mediterranean race and Dinarid race, where it is known as the "Roman nose" when found amongst Italians, the Southern French, Portuguese and Spanish. And others, such as racial theorist and economist William Z. Ripley, have argued that it is characteristic of people of Teutonic descent.

Roman Nose

Hook Nose (Cheyenne: Vóhko'xénéhe, also spelled Woqini and Woquini), historically better known as Roman Nose (c. 1823 – September 17, 1868), was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not the greatest and most influential warrior during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s. Born during the prosperous days of the fur trade in the 1820s, he was called môséškanetsénoonáhe (Bat) as a youth. He later took the warrior name Hook Nose, which the whites interpreted as Roman Nose.

Considered invincible in combat, this fierce warrior distinguished himself in battle to such a degree that the U.S. military mistook him for the Chief of the entire Cheyenne nation. Following the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864, Roman Nose became a principal figure among his people, leading retaliatory strikes against Euro-American settlements at the Battle of Julesburg along the Platte Road and Powder River regions of south-central Wyoming and in the Platte valley of Nebraska, western Kansas, and eastern Colorado. The Native American author and physician Charles A. Eastman allegedly wrote of Roman Nose that, "Perhaps no other warrior attacked more emigrants along the Oregon Trail between 1860-1868."