Spuzzum

[Mike Cleven]

At 08:45 AM 12/3/98 -0800, David Robertson wrote:
>Lhush san,
>
>Nayka tEmtEm, uk Spuzzum yaka chaku khapa uk Nlaka'pamuk (Thompson Salish)
>wawa, kakwa L.C. pi M.T. Thompson Laska munk-c!Em khapa Laska wawa buk
>(dictionary).
>
>Hilu Laksta kEmtEks Ikta yaka tIki wawa.
>
>Dave
>
>Good day,
>
>I think Spuzzum comes from the Nlaka'pamuk (Thompson Salish) language, as
>L.C. and M.T. Thompson write in their dictionary.
>
>No one knows what it means.

My own reading of it over the years was that it was a local variation of
"spatsum", the name for the basket-making reed/grass.  Since I'd seen
spatsum in a couple of the Jargon lexicons, I'd taken Spuzzum to be a
Jargon name (of sorts, since the word is used in other languages in its
various forms).

Don't they have spatsum in other parts of the Northwest, or is it
particular to the Fraser?