"Eulachon" among the Kwakwaka'wakw

[Thomas R. Speer]

As a young man in the late 1960s, I had the privilege of enjoying Eulachon oil in the company of Kwakwaka’wakw chiefs and elders at ‘Yalis (Alert  Bay Reserve, Cormorant   Island, B.C.)  These are the First Nations whom the Whites collectively called “Kwakiutl”, a corruption of the name of the Fort  Rupert Band.
    
  Chief Peter S. Smith, Sewidanakwula, of the Tlawitsis Band of Kalokwis (Turnour  Island, B.C.) was our host.  We had it as thick gravy served over boiled potatoes.  Although it had a very strong aroma, it was delicious!
    
  Chief Peter Smith pronounced it `OO-lah-kun.  He also called it “Tleena”, the Kwakwaka’wakw name in their Kwakwala language.  People also refer to it as “Grease”.  The famous “Grease Trail” on Vancouver  Island was the trade route overland for trading this precious commodity.
    
  Is the name “Eulachon” originally a Tsinuk (Chinook) word, or was it brought into the Chinook trade jargon  like many words of foreign origins?  I would be curious to know.
    
  Hayu masi!
    
  Lakw’alas
  Tom Speer
  Duwamish Tribal Services Board
  Seattle
    
    
 James Crippen <jcrippen at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  This is only tangentially related to Chinook Jargon, but I think it's
 the best place to ask this question. I'm interested in the "eulachon"
 fish (Thaleichthys pacificus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulachon),
 also occasionally known as the "candlefish". It's the little
 herring-like smelt fish that has cream-colored flesh and is extremely
 oily. It is traditionally processed for its oil which was used in
 trade along "grease trails" up and down the coast. I  believe the name
 comes from CJ. But the name for this fish, has a few different
 regional pronunciations in English in the PacNW. In Alaska where I
 grew up it was pronounced "hooligan", as with the British soccer fans.
 I'm curious about its pronunciation elsewhere along the coast, and the
 different ways people write it.
 
 Hayu masi,
 James Crippen
 
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