"Nampa", "Bigfoot", & Chinook Jargon

[David D. Robertson]

Well, well.  Sometimes you can mention just about anything, and a
google.com search turns up a relation to Chinook Jargon.  So "Bigfoot"
and "Nampa" turn out not to be so tangential, after all.  Read & enjoy.  --
  Dave


[from:]  http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0039.doc

IDAHO STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

 REFERENCE SERIES

 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME NAMPA

Number 39 May 1966

When the Oregon Short Line was built through Idaho, 1882-1883, the unusual
names given to some of the stations along the railroad were believed,
according to public opinion, to be of Indian origin.  F. G. Cottingham, of
Nampa, was interested in learning the origin of his town's name.  About
1904 an Indian agent located at Ross Fork had told him it
meant "moccasin."  When W. N. Shilling, ex-United States employee in the
Indian service who had later become postmaster at Rupert, Idaho, gave the
origin and meaning of several of the unusual names, Cottingham evidently
tried to learn, without success, the origin of Nampa, from him.
He carried on further investigation by writing the United States Indian
agents at Ross Fork and Owyhee, Nevada, since both places were occupied by
Indians of Shoshoni origin.  The replies he received were published in the
December 6, 1911, installment of his "History of Nampa and Vicinity" that
appeared in the Nampa Messenger.  Evan W. Estep, agent at Ross fork,
wrote:  "I am not able to find the meaning of the word 'Nampa' although the
Indians seem to think it is a Shoshone word, Namb, a word very similar in
sound, means moccasin."
George B. Haggett, superintendent at Owyhee, Nevada, was more specific.  He
wrote:

Your letter inquiring as to the meaning of the word "Nampa" at hand.  I
asked quite a good many of the Indians here and some of the best informed
of them say that it, the word, is of Shoshone origin, and primarily
means "footprints" as the imprint of the moccasin in the sand or earth.
Some use it as implying the moccasin or shoe, but this is probably a
secondary use, or borrowed one, as we sometimes speak of the cause for the
effect.


Mr. Cottingham concluded that "There may be some room for a question as to
whether the word now spelled is pure Shoshone, but there is no room for
doubt that the original root was a Shoshone word, and the meaning is either
moccasin or footprint."  He explained that he had gone into the history and
meaning of the word more extensively than he would have done ordinarily
since the folklore and tradition of the community had begun to befog the
memory with visionary meanings or to defile the name by ascribing to it a
putrid definition or a vile epithet in some unfamiliar tongue.
Mr. Cottingham thought it a little hard to see how the definition applied
to the Nampa area, and so did I until I learned that the Indians of the
region were wont to stuff their moccasins, during cold weather, with sage
brush leaves.  This would enlarge to unusual size, the tracks of Indians
wearing such stuffed moccasins.
No information concerning the name is found again until August, 1919, when
Fred W. Wilson, Secretary of the Nampa Harvest Festival, wrote Fred G. Mock
concerning publicity proposed for the forthcoming community fair.  He
stated, "We have decided that a stunt, new and different than anything ever
tried here, would be to seek out and find Chief Nam-Puh..." and he wanted
Mr. Mock to do just that.  Mock, as "Ogal Alla, Chief of the Nampah and
Kunah Tribes, "consented to do so and give the name of the Indian sought
as "War Chief, Big Foot Nampa!"
In his "A Romance of the Sawtooth," published in 1917, Mock had made
extensive use of the Chinook jargon, even translating, by use of a Chinook
dictionary, the Lord's Prayer.  He again turned to that dictionary and
messages in Chinook, with translations "for the palefaces," began to appear
in a local paper.  The great War Chief would attend the Harvest Festival:
in full regalia he would hold a reception before his tipi one night of the
Festival and he would ride in the parade.  He even made a speech to the
assembled crowd.  He had become "the doughty warrior after whom this city
was named."
Such a fanciful tale caught the imagination of most people who believed
from then until the present time that the town had been named actually
after an Indian chieftain, War Chief Big Foot Nampa, not from a Shoshoni
word meaning "footprints."  Yet Mr. Mock was historian enough to preserve,
along with Mr. Wilson's letter and his correspondence in English and
Chinook concerning it, the Cottingham account of the true origin of the
word Nampa.  This material is now a part of my file on "Nampa."
Recent linguistic investigation of Shoshoni words by Dr. Sven Liljeblad
confirms the footprint interpretation.  He reports that a Shoshoni word for
foot, pronounced "nambe" or "nambuh," corresponds quite closely with the
name "Nampa," and supports the Cottingham account of the origin of the name.

Prepared by Annie Laurie Bird.



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