Aplodontia rufa, cont.

[zenk at USWESTMAIL.NET]

Some of the terms given by Ernest Thompson Seton cited way back when at the start of the rather involved discussion of this critter I knew rang a bell somewhere.  I finally got around to searching through dusty old notes and located the following:

Gatschet (Tualatin mss, 1877) records Tualatin Kalapuya akulla (stressed akUlla), variously identified as:
- "kind of otter, thick fur"; "in water ... black & reddish fur"; "kind of gopher ... opposum?"; "a kind of otter, size of skunk, thick fur"; "water animal ... high-priced braided blankets [made from it]".

Seton's Oukala could be a related stem, but with a Chinookan feminine sing. n/g prefix, as I think someone suggested.  I find also a note that Jeremiah Curtin recorded Wasco "kula   possum".  Dell, if you're out there, do you know anything about this word?

Jacobs also records kulata (stressed kulAta) as Santiam Kalapuya for the myth person who dug the tunnel that later became Santiam gap (which I gather is somewhere near Jefferson, Oregon).

Finally, Harrington (JP Harrington papers, mf vol. 1, reel 18, frame 0036) records words for "mountain beaver" among a swath of vocabulary items that all appear to be from Joe Peter.  The languages are "LC" (which for Joe Peter means Lower Cowlitz, I believe) and "UC  Yak"  (UC = Upper Cowlitz = Taitnapam Sahaptin, Yak = Yakama Sahaptin, I believe):  LC Su7L (S = shibilant, u stressed, 7 = glottal stop, L = barred L), UC Yak sq'ula (q' = glottalized q, stressed sq'ulA; broadly transliterated).  The critter is said by Joe Peter to be "good eating."  Henry


On Sat, 28 April 2001, Dave Robertson wrote:

>
> Re: "mountain boomer"
>  Comments: To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>  Ernest Thompson Seton in /Lives of Game Animals/ (Vol. IV Part II, Rodents,
>  &c.,  1909),  identifies this animal as /Aplodontia rufa/, and  gives as
>  other names for it: Mountain Beaver, Sewellel, Blue Muskrat, Ground Beaver,
>  Muskrat Beaver, Showt'l, Kick-willy, Giant Mole, Ou-ka-la, Haplodon,
>  Aplodon, and Chehalis.
>  He quotes Dr. Jas. G. Cooper:" 'The Chinook name for the animal itself is
>  /O-gwool-lal./ /She-wal-lal/ (Sewellel, corrupt) is their name for the robe
>  made of its skins.' "
>  This information is taken from the 1929 edition,  Doubleday, Doran, p 526
>  et seq.
>  A. Murie
>
>  A&M Murie
>  N. Bangor NY
>  sagehen at westelcom.com


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