The mystery of the Stuwix - an Athapaskan or Chinookan people amongst the Secx'emc (fwd)

[Nadja Adolf]

I can think of one way that would not involve ever seeing
a whale - trade in food stuffs and other items.

People forget that trading existed long, long ago; East Coast
shells have been found on the West Coast and vice versa. There
are old stories of people who travelled the entire distance
from sea to sea, long before the Europeans arrived.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Cleven [mailto:ironmtn at bigfoot.com]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 11:24 PM
To: CHINOOK at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: The mystery of the Stuwix - an Athapaskan or Chinookan
peopleamongst the Secx'emc (fwd)


David Robertson wrote:
>
and while I'm checking the dictionary, I'd like to
> mention that the (Spokane) Salish word for whale (!) is /smtus/.

I'm always curious as to how an inland language would have a word for
such a creature; of course over the millenia knowledge of the sea and
its creatures would have come up the great rivers - but you'd think the
word used would be brought with the tale....