"sewellel" redux; "Cenaqua"

[Mike Cleven]

Dave Robertson wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> A little more about "sewellel", also known as the "mountain beaver":  In the Hilbert-Hess-Bates Lushootseed Salish dictionary (University of Washington Press, 1994), we find indexed under "beaver" (not under "mountain" or any other main entry) the forms /shaw7kwL/, /shaw7L/, /shEw7L/.  Note that I've adapted the spellings to an email version of current Grand Ronde CJ writing.  These forms look somewhat similar to "sewellel" & similar, and this makes me wonder whether we have here another example of an animal name that has very similar forms from language to language in the Pacific Northwest.

Hmmm.  Wonder what it is in Halqemeylem and Similkameen-Okanagan; those
are the two nations at the northern limit of its range in southern BC's
Cascades.....
>
> Also--does any of you know the origin of the term "Cenaqua"?  I see it on a tacky, gigantic old necktie in a secondhand store...some sort of festival that occurs or occurred near Vancouver, Washington.

Sounds like D'sonoqua to me; I think that's a Kwakwala name but again
perhaps the Cannibal Giant Woman's name is relatively constant from
people to people.  D'sonoqua is the well-known standing figure with the
outstretched arms and the o-pursed lips in blood red.  I know a white
woman who was initiated into the D'sonoqua secret society in Ocean Falls
BC btw; not sure if it's the female equivalent to the Hamatsa or
not......anyone know?


Mike Cleven
http://www.cayoosh.net (early BC history)
http://www.hiyu.net (Cayoosh Jargon phrasebook/history)