Joe Back and the term "Siwash"

[Dave Robertson]

Back, Joe.  1959.  Horses, hitches & rocky trails.  Boulder, CO: Johnson Books.

Apparently the classic on its subject.  I found a copy lying in the street
in a spring rain, and rescued it.

Pages 30-32:

"The old-time name for pannier, not heard so much these days, is kyack or
ki-ack -- that's Siwash for pack-sack or pannier.  [...]  The Spanish horse
with his fine high spirits and warm blood showed up in the Siwash-Nez
Perce-Blackfoot country before the white man did, before the Indians living
there could even have heard of those gold-hungry and murderous
conquistadores of Castile."

The first use of "Siwash" sounds like it means "Indian" generically.  The
second reads more like "NW Indian", I think.

Joe Back was born in Ohio circa 1879, and came to Wyoming circa 1895.  I
think that may be as far West as he got.

Online, AHD4 has "kyack" as probably deriving from "kayak".  Really?

--Dave R.

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