Yachats, 1875: Indians to move to Siletz or Salmon River, or assimilate? (J.P. Harrington's notes quoted in Youst book)

[Mike Cleven]

>
>Just talking off the top of my head here, but another possibility is that
>the Jargon got somewhat garbled, somewhere in the process of being reported
>at 3rd or 4th or nth hand.
>
>The version in which the guy says he would eat his land  evidently had some
>currency.  At least, I do remember one or another of Harrington's
>informants reporting it that way:  not Lottie Evanoff; perhaps Frank Drew
>or Spencer Scott (I know I have the anecdote in my notes somewhere, but
>would have to locate it).  The idea being conveyed, as I remember, is that
>this old Alsea (who is identified in this version) felt THAT connected to
>his land.  He definitely did not want to leave it.

I think it's worth remembering that in some/many languages the words for
feed and eat are somewhat interchangeable and dependent on ideom (idiom?).
We expect muckamuck=eat because of the way we think in English; but it's
conceivable that muckamuck might have a sort of reflexive meaning - to feed
as well as to eat......which makes sense also for 'high muckamuck' = not
just 'lots of food', 'lots to eat' but maybe more like 'big feed(er)', i.e.
some one who feeds lots of people....

MC
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