"dret" Cowlitz shawash tIlIXEm; IlI7i lhas nim

[Mike Cleven]

David Robertson wrote:
>
> LhaXayEm!
>
> *IlEp, nixwa nay wawa "lhush ukuk!" pus Cowlitz shawash tIlIXEm.  Ukuk
> ixt-mamunk (tEmala san), "haya'sh tkop phapha'" wawa dret shawash tIlIXEm
> lhaska.
>
> *Makwst-Ikta, Spokane ya phepa _Spokesman-Review_ ukuk san ya wawa hayu
> khapa IlI7i lhas nim munk salIks shawash tIlIXEm pi lhaska shiks.
> Tl'unEs-lhaksta wawa lhush pus wek nEsayka wawa "Squaw Creek", "Squaw Tit
> Hill", pi khakwa.
>
>         BEt wik nayka kEmtEks pus "Dago Peak" (khapa Idaho) ya nim chaku
> khapa BastEn p'Eshaq wawa, or pus ya chaku khapa ChInuk Wawa.  Hayu IlI7i
> khapa Idaho, wik saya khapa KInchoch IlI7i, t'u7wEn ChInuk nem.  Ixt man
> ya mamunk pus US Forest Service 70-80 khul anqEti, ya palach ukuk nim.
> Khakwa, "Eena Creek", "Mowich Creek".  Alaxti ukuk "Dago" dret khakwa
> "tunus lamush".
>
>         Pi tEnEs-hayu tIlIXEm tIki pus nEsayka munk Xluwima Ikta nim
> khakwa "Papoose Creek" -- dret ChInuk Wawa ukuk!
>
>         Wik lili anqEti, lhaska munk Xluwima ukuk "Dago Peak" ya nim, alta
> "Italian Peak" yaka!  Wek nayka cipi mayka!
>
>         (The gist:  Some people think that place-names like "Squaw Creek"
> and "Squaw Tit Hill" should be changed to less offensive counterparts.
> This kind of thinking is really interesting when it is being applied to
> names like "Dago Peak" in Idaho, which was recently changed to "Italian
> Peak", believe it or not, and to "Papoose Creek" -- /papus/ being
> perfectly good ChInuk Wawa, as I can show you in the newspaper _Kamlups
> Wawa_ and elsewhere.)

Some whites used "papoose" in the same way that "pickaninny" might be
used; clearly racist by "fondly patronizing"; to PC types it is
therefore racist - although as you note it's a perfectly ordinary word,
whether in the Jargon or in the source (Algonkian?) language.....

Ref. DejaNews for a thread with a subject header containing "Chinaman's
Peak" in Alberta, which was nammd by a Chinese railway worker who
climbed it on a bet; in the last couple of years it has been named after
him personally - Lee Poon Peak, if I remember, at the insistence of
Alberta's growing immigrant Chinese community; even though their 19th
Century (early '00 20th C.?) forbear chose the "Chinaman" designation
himself as a salute to _all_ Chinese, rather than as an
insult.....several placenames in BC have been similarly changed,
although I think "Squaw Lake" and "Nigger Creek" and "Hindoo Flats" are
still on the landscape so far....

Mike Cleven
http://members.home.net/skookum/
http://members.home.net/cayoosh/