Jamboree Parade Brings Record Number oi Entries
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P a g e s Eroili O ur P a s t
By Kenneth L. Holmes, writer historian
INDIAN NAMES ON THE LAND
nounced “Yam-il”; Tualatin, often
spelled “Tualaty” or “Tollity” by
the pioneers; “Clatskanie,” which
should be “Tlats-kani,” according
to Lyman. There are lots of other
Indian names in Oregon nomen­
clature: Clatsop, Chinook, Tilla­
mook, Nehalem, Yaquina, Mult­
nomah, etc.
In Washington State two de­
bated words have been Spokane,
which in the face of all tradition
I have found spelled “Spokein,” by
one of our early explorers, and
Sequim, which is naturally pro­
nounced “Squim.” The pioneers
of Washington saw to it that many
more Indian names became perma­
nent features on their map than
was the case among Oregonians.
Of the 37 county names in Wash­
ington, sixteen are derived from
Indian words: Asotin, Chehalis,
Chelan, Cowlitz, Kitsap, Kittitas,
Klickitat, Okanogan, Skagit, Ska­
mania, Snohomish, Spokane, Wah­
kiakum, Whatcom and Yakima.
The story in “PAGES FROM
OUR PAST’’ about Chief Seattle
and the city named for him
brought an unexpected response
from our readers. One of them, J.
F. (Jake) Jacobson, an 82-year
young man from Eugene, wrote
asking about Chief “Sealth,” about
whom he had heard over the
years. The answer to his question
is that Chief Seattle and Chief
Sealth were one and the same per­
son. Roberta Watt, in her book,
The Story of Seattle, puts it this
way: “The name, as we pronounce
it, is a corruption of the original
‘Sealth’ pronounced with a gut-
teral sound that only an Indian
can utter. ‘Seattle’ was easier for
the white man’s tongue; so Seattle
it became.”
This brings up the whole matter
of the difficulty the white man had
in transliterating into English the
Indian words. There was no writ­
ten languages. Added to this, the
Indian languages and dialects were PAUL BUNYAN IN THE
legion. Oscar Winther, in his hook, PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The Great Northwest, says, “Areas
For years I’ve heard rumors that
of greatest linguistic diversity in
Paul
Bunyan, the mighty giant of
native North America were Cali­
fornia, the central part of. the Gulf logger folklore, finally got to the
of Mexico coast, and the Pacific Pacific Northwest. Supposedly
Northwest. In the last-named re­ Babe, the Great Blue Ox, died at
gion twenty unrelated language the shores of Puget Sound, and
families are represented by one that they made a great roundhouse
or more language. The total num­ in Seattle from his ribs. I heard,
ber of mutually unintelligable lan­ too, that Babe’s burial mound is
guages spoken in the Pacific the Olympic Mountains. There
Northwest amounted to at least seemed to be some evidence also
fifty-six.” In addition to this ba­ that Crater Lake was filled by
bel of tongues there was a useful Paul Bunyan during the Winter of
trade language called the Chinook the Blue Snow, and that accounts
Jargon, a combination of several for the intense blue color of the
Indian tongues, with the later ad­ lake.
As a historian naturally I
dition of corrupted English, French
wanted to get at the bottom of
and possibly Russian words.
The Indian spoke with many this problem and so sought out
gutteral sounds and such combina­ some of the authrities on the sub-
tions as “tl,” which are difficult ect. James Stevens, in his book,
to transpose into English. Besides “Paul_Bunyan,” published in 1925,
this there were different English ust got Paul into the Inland Em­
accents among the explorers, fur pire, which he called “The He Man
traders and settlers. There were Country.” Ida Turney, in the finest
Englishmen and Scots, and there Paul Bunyan book for kids, “Paul
were differing American accents. Bunyan, The Work Giant,” pub­
This made for difficulties which lished by Binfords and Mort in
were reflected in several tempests Portland (1941), hardly gets him
in teapots in earlier days. One of into our area. Wallace Wadsworth
the most argued words was Wil­ in what is otherwise an admirable
lamette. I have seen letters from treatment of the subect in “Paul
the old-timers to each other and Bunyan and his Great Blue Ox,”
to newspaper editors hotly con­ (1926), has the audacity to say
testing the spelling of this word. that historians have not studied
I have seen it spelled Wallamette, the matter because they “have
Wallamet, Willamet, Wallamitte, not had the time to pay much at­
and Walhammet. H. S. Lyman long tention to the lesser things which
ago said that the real Indian word he accomplished in Washington
was “al-lamt,” designating a par­ and Oregon.” It was not until I
ticular spot on the bank of the found Esther Sheperd’s “Paul
river near present Oregon City. Bunyan,” published by Harcourt,
He said the Indians accented the Brace and Company (1924), that
first syllable, and there were only I found that these “lesser things”
were really magnificent projects.
two syllables.
Another word that has been de­ Let me tell you about some of
bated is Champoeg, the place on them.
Paul Bunyan was bom, you
the shore of the Willamette river
where the Hudson’s Bay company know, on the shores of Maine, and
stored wheat and the locale of the during his life moved west. He did
first government in the Oregon a lot of logging around the Great
Country. Some say the word came Lakes region and then started west
from “Campment du Sable,” once more. Somehow he got lost
“place of sand,” but Louis La- “somewhere between Fargo and
Bonte, one of the pioneer French Seattle,” and he wandered off to
settlers said that the name was the south, dragging his peavey
“purely Indian.” The “Cha” sound along behind. The ditch that he
is the same as the Indian prefix gouged out, of course, is now the
on words such as Chelam, Che- Grand Canyon.
My first job was in the Inland
meketa, Chemawa. “Poeg” meant
a plant or root found there and Empire, east of the Cascades.
desired by the Indians: Its pro­ There he found a vast inland sea
nunciation would be SHAHM- with a large island in the north­
POH-EGG, and not SHAM-POO- west comer. The shores and the
island were covered with the "big-
EE, as some say.
Other problem words in the Wil­ ; gest trees you ever saw.” They
lamette valley were Yamhill, the was so tall “they took on some of
name for a tribe, usually pro­ the color of the sky and was blue
The Jamboree parade this year had 74 entries, the most for any parade to date.
There were 62 entries judged, plus the Marine Corps color guard, six autos and
dign laries and five entries which did not register. Entries pictured above are, from
left to right, first row: Christian church float. Curl family entry in kids division;
second row: Columbia county dairy princess. Pal Kallberg of Scappoose. Vernonia
Milk Farms float. Lions club float: third row: the Jamboree court. Princess Patti
Chandler in foreground; Vernonia high school drill team and band; fourth row:
Cub Scout float. Curl Grocery float; filth row: Scappoose Pow Wow court, the
Space Sweethearts, Keep Oregon float which was part of the Clatskanie entry,
the beach buggy of Allen Fowlar decorated and entered by the JayCees group;
bottom. Ralph s Chevron Service, featuring the Ralph Sturdevant children as Lit­
tle Miss Muffet and the spider, Little Boy Blue under the haystack and Mistress
Mary.
about half way down their
branches.’’ When he had all the
logs cut and fastened together in a
giant raft, then be went down to
the southwest comer of the lake
and plowed out an outlet for it and
rafted the logs right ut to the sea.
That’s one story of how he made
the Columbia gorge. And that’s the
right one too.
There are a couple of others,
but they don’t seem to hold much
water. One of the other stories
tells how Paul was having Babe,
the Blue Ox, pull a big log chain
into a solid bar that he wanted,
and the bat broke, and Babe could
not stop pulling and ran clear to
Actoria pulling it behind him. The
scratch he maoe is the Columbia
gorge. One group of loggers holds
that Paul dug out the gorge with
tame mountain goats, proof of
which is that there are not moun­
tain goats south of the river. They
all happened to be working on the
north side when Paul Bunyan
turned the water lose into the
gorge.
About this time Paul built Mt.
Hood as a lookout for his opera­
tion. It was probably about this
time, too, that he made Crater
Lake as we told you before.
His next project was to dig the
Puget Sound. He got a great big
scraper to drag behind Babe, but
that wasn’t big enough, so Paul
went up to Alaska and brought
back a glacier that helped him get
the job done. Old Man Rainier and
Old Man Puget were supposed to
pay Paul in money and with a
trainload of his favorite tobacco,
but they tried to cheat him out of
his money and tobacco, and Paul
got mad and threw some shovel
loads of dirt back into the Sound,
and that’s how the San Juan is­
lands got made He took the dirt
from Bellingham bay and piled it
up to make Mt. Baker.
Well, now you see what histori­
cal research will do. Now we know
some of the truth of the matter.
Paul Bunyan did get into the Pa­
cific Northwest, and we have all
these great scenic wonders to
prove it.
Billy: “Why doesn’t your little
lamb follow ywu to school any
more Mary?”
Mary: "At 50 miles an hour?”
Uernonia Eaqle
THURSDAY, AUG. 2, 1962
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