Kokanee/kickininee

[Mike Cleven]

Theresa Kishkan wrote:
> I have been following this thread with interest. Like Mike C. I have only
> ever heard "kokanee" used for the fish we know is a landlocked sockeye. I
> have caught them in the lake on my brother's ranch in the Nazko Valley and
> they taste wonderful. Anyway, I looked in the Akriggs' British Columbia
> Place Names to see what they have to say about the derivation of kokanee as
> it's used for things like glaciers and creeks.

The cite DR mentioned said 1937 as its first appearance, but I'm under
the impression that Kokanee Glacier was named quite a bit before that;
and of course the word was in use long before that; I'm surprised the
provenance-date doesn't come out of a 19th Century source!  The Akriggs
don't give a date, however....

Which indirectly raises the question of when Kokanee Beer ("blue
cocaine", after its royal blue label) was named/first brewed.

There's no entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia (McLelland & Stewart,
2000) for "kokanee"; another one of this publication's many shortcomings
re British Columbia.

There's another variety of landlocked salmon in the Seton-Anderson Lakes
near Lillooet; called "floaters" or "semele" (the spelling I've seen has
circumflexes over the latter two e's, but I don't know the proper
St'at'imcets orthography); IIRC they're a variety of spring (or coho -
Terry?); they're called "floaters" because at a certain point in the
year they float belly-up on the surface of the water near shore, and can
be scooped out by hand; they're not dead - maybe asleep or
something.....apparently quite tasty, but not as numerous as once was.




--
Mike Cleven
http://www.cayoosh.net (Bridge River Lillooet history)
http://www.hiyu.net (Chinook Jargon phrasebook/history)