One's "name to the white man"

[Dave Robertson]

A little cultural lesson from interior BC:

An interesting expression in the Chinook letters, and a reasonably common 
one, is to talk about somebody's "name to the white man".

There are a couple of ways to say it.

(1) literally "name to the white man":

"Pos maika mamuk pipa kopa naika, ukuk naika nim kopa wait man: Billy Clark,
Spuzzum, BC"
"If you write to me, this is my name to the white man: Billy Clark, 
Spuzzum, BC."

(2) literally "name to the governor / government":

"Iaka nim Paistir taii, pi Shuiirsti; iht, naika ilo komtaks iaka nim kopa 
govni."
"Their [sic] names are Chief Paistir, and Shuiirsti; [there's] one [other], 
I don't know his name to the governor."

"Kaltash nsaika mitlait nim taii.  Kaltash ukuk nim ... ukuk nim mitlait 
kopa gavmint."
"It's worthless for us to have the name [=title] "Chief".  This name is 
worthless ... this name (belongs) to the government."  

Cheers, 

--Dave R

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