Place name "La Tete", Washington State

[Dave Robertson]

>From Edmond Meany's article in a serialization of his book on WA place
names, WHQ XI:1:51 (Jan. 1920):

"LA TETE, an eminence said to be 2798 feet high between Fort Nisqually and
the Cascade Range received that name from Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson of
the Wilkes Expedition, 1841...  Theodore Winthrop applied the same name in
that vicinity but probably not to the same peak... Recent charts do not
identify the peak."

What Meany does not point out here, by contrast with some other entries, is
that this place name probably comes from CJ's word for "head".

And by contrast with the place names in the post I just sent, La Tete was
probably in colloquial use -- it was a "real" CJ place name.  I like to
point that out as I think about things that pidgin languages usually don't
have (like personal names) and things they usually do, or can, have (like
place names, maybe).

--Dave R

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