At 01:22 PM 1/5/98 EST, you wrote:
>Diann -- Like I wrote (privately) earlier, I didn't know that Yakima/Yakama
>was spelled both ways. However, and my current available literature and
>knowledge amounts to virtually nothing on Yakama/Yakima Indians. I do note
>that in the DeLorme Atlas, only Yakima is used 'and' in reference to the
>'Yakima' Indian Reservation (pp36-37). DeLorme and Webster's it seems *are*
>the current limits of my knowledge, and in neither is "Yakama" referenced or
>added as an alternative spelling. Perhaps officially, the tribe refers to
>themselves as "Yakama". I'm kind of embarrassed to say even as in
>intermittent Washingtonian that I am rather unlearned on the subject.
>
>
Richard and Diann,

The Yakama Tribal Council officially changed the name of the "Nation" to
"Yakama" from "Yakima," I believe, in 1995, to conform to the spelling in
the treaty documents. However, the river, county, and city retain the
earlier "Yakima" spelling. My personal opinion is that "yakima" better
represents the way the name is pronounced in the Sahaptin language, in which
it may be interpreted as [i]-yak-i-ma, literally "the pregnant ones," which,
according to one elder, Gilbert Smartlowit, is the name of the hills across
the river from the present city of Yakima, which in the Myth Age were five
pregnant women transformed into hills. If you view them from in the early
morning sun you can well imagine it. In short, the term -- which is not
originally a tribal designation but a place name -- was misspelled in the
treaty. But as it's the Tribe's name, they can spell it as they wish.

As for "Oldsquaw," I still think it is most likely onomatopoetic in origin.
Of course, I think people used to call a coneflower "niggerhead," which
perhaps similarly had a quaint attraction for certain people at one time.
Language evolves.

Gene Hunn, Seattle, hunnhome at accessone.com