Cheekeye BC - Chee Kye?

[Mike Cleven]

Had a visit with Lisa Peppan who came up here this week and saw among
her documents a 1950 obit of ancestory by the name of Huston who had
been resident in Brackendale - and formerly in Chee Kye early in the
century.  The date of the obit/article is 1950 BTW, which was a time in
which the Squamish-Lillooet country probably still used a lot of Chinook
as evidenced by the man from Lillooet/Similkameen who ICQ'd me.

I'd never considered Cheekeye to have any other spelling, or even to be
Chinook.  If it is, what might "kye" mean; usually lekye was a piebald
horse, wasn't it?,  but maybe there's another meaning I'm missing; maybe
a Squamish loan word, maybe a contraction of something else.  Maybe a
variant of "kah" for "place"; "new place", i.e.  The river that Cheekeye
is on is the Cheakamus; I'd always thought there was a lexical
connection, in Squamish presumably.  There is a book on BC Place Names,
by the Akriggs I think, but I don't have a copy; could be Cheekeye's in
it but it's not comprehensive.  Still lots of oldtimers up in
Brackendale and thereabouts so maybe someone knows the meaning; unless
it's simply a Squamish word and the spelling reflects awareness of
Jargon word conventions.  Thoughts?