Guest guest Posted August 20, 2003 Report Share Posted August 20, 2003 Native Roots by Ron Sullivan When Europeans reached this continent, they did that name-and-claim stunt that seems to have been with humankind ever since Adam. Of course, Columbus and his gang got it wrong, carrying on about Asia and leaving us with a nomenclatural weirdness that only starts with "political correctness," that (more to the point) leads to a lot of conversational two- stepping along the lines of, "We have so many Indian restaurants here; why don't we have any Indian restaurants? Um, you know what I mean. Where can I get fry bread besides the Berkeley powwow?" By the way: Do we have any Indian restaurants? You know what I mean. It's a big continent, and some of the newcomers did notice that there were people already living here, sometimes even that they already had names for places. Given the ways the original people usually made a living, it's no surprise that so many names that have stuck are about plants — are oral maps to the big outdoor larder, or tributes to, say, some memorable tree. And given also the fact that pre-European California was an incredibly polyglot place, we have a wealth of puzzles to sort out if we start wondering what on earth that name means. The best-known results still involve a lot of guesswork. The transliterations here, by the way, are filtered through a number of English and Spanish approximations as well as Faultline's typographical limitations. If you want to know how to pronounce the originals, you'd best try to find a native speaker, and good luck with that. The Cosumnes River has the Miwok name for toyon, whose berries were toasted and eaten. The name toyon (which applies to lots of places, including a couple of towns) is the Ohlone "totcon," filtered, like many of these names, through Spanish. Hollywood seems to be named for the same plant, in a plain English misnomer: Toyon has red winter berries and used to cover the hill the place is built on. Los Angeles itself was built over a Gabrielino village called Yangna or iyaanga, "poison oak place." This makes me wonder if the First Peoples might have done some perimeter-security gardening there. If you've ever watched a horse noshing on poison oak, you can guess about when that would have stopped working. I've heard that American Indians were immune to poison oak, but both friends' experiences and the number of "old Indian cures" I've seen for the rash would seem to belie that. More palatably, pine nuts gave names to Wahtoke, in Fresno County, and Tuba Canyon in Death Valley. The latter's a Panamint word, and, alas, doesn't mean "early big brass horn." I guess the same folks named Tubatulabal, which is from a Kern County tribe's name that means " pine nut eaters." I'd like to know more about their cuisine myself; I've heard you can make a nice butter out of sugar-pine nuts. Inyo's Tunawee Canyon is Panamint too: neither the fish nor the cactus, Tunawee is mountain mahogany. Pine trees named Wassuma Creek in Madera County and Waucoba Mountain in Inyo. That's more obvious in Spanish-named Mount Piños (where I was privileged to see my first and last wild California condors) and Point Piños, and Piñon in Riverside County. Wawona in Yosemite is named for redwoods (Genus Sequoiadendron rather than Sequoia) and — straight from the Spanish — so is Palo Alto, after an individual tree. Yosemite has quite a few indigenous (or indigenoid, anyway) names, including Tenaya Lake, which appellation is, as I understand, a serious etiquette blunder. The man of that name is long dead, and his people thought it a very nasty thing to speak a dead person's name, let alone call a landscape feature by it. Seems fairly embarrassing, especially when you read a bit of history. Yosemite is one of those places that Europeans thought to be beautiful, untouched wilderness, especially the parklike valley floor. The historic joke on them is that it was a beautiful much-touched garden, maintained intensively by its inhabitants, whom, of course, the Europeans drove out in spite of Tenaya's valiant defense. Well, there's no Chagrin Falls there, but there is Lehamite Falls, named for "mock orange," our own Western Philadelphus species. Tarweed is a genus of yellow composites with fragrant, sticky leaves and stems and nutritious little seeds, tasty when roasted. Yosemite's Tiltill Creek is named for it, as are (probably) Suey Creek and (more likely) Lisque Creek in Santa Barbara County. Hetten, Hettenshaw Valley, Kettenpom Valley and Kittinelbe, all in Trinity and Humboldt counties, all take their names from the Wintu word for another food plant, camas. That's a lily, and you eat the bulb, and you're very, very careful not to confuse it with Zigadenus venosus. We have a lot of that Zigadenus in the Bay Area (beautiful fields of it bloom in Marin County) and it's called "death camas" for a very good reason. Plant identification is one gardening skill that has historically been a matter of life and death. When the bulbs aren't ripe until the flowers and foliage have dried out, it gets really tricky. Was every Wintu woman the equivalent of a Japanese fugu chef, or were there specialists? I don't know. Polyglot? Oh yes — San Francisco's Islais Creek and Santa Barbara County's Tajiguas are both named for the holly-leafed cherry. Tajiguas (pronounced Spanish style) is a Chumash village name from tayiyas, and Islais (pronounced, incomprehensibly, to rhyme more or less with "business") is from the local Spanish islay, in turn from the Salinan "slay." It's a very nice bush or small tree, but it isn't a single-malt Scotch. We don't call ourselves the Garden State here, but the place has been a garden since long before it had the name California. This landscape didn't just happen; it was cultivated and cared for. Some of the names on this land are a lot like row markers or the tags in botanic gardens: labels for important crops or just beautiful and beloved plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 i was very interested by your email about place names, history and plant names...............poignant that names so beautiful can also speak of lost cultures, ways of living, that were put down, obliterated when europeans arrived.............. a moment of thought and quiet to remember them.............. catherine >EBbrewpunx > >calif_homesteads , organichomesteadinggardening , > Native Roots of California >Wed, 20 Aug 2003 21:30:11 EDT > >Native Roots > > by Ron Sullivan > > When Europeans reached this continent, they did that name-and-claim stunt >that seems to have been with humankind ever since Adam. > >Of course, Columbus and his gang got it wrong, carrying on about Asia and >leaving us with a nomenclatural weirdness that only starts with "political >correctness," that (more to the point) leads to a lot of conversational two- >stepping along the lines of, "We have so many Indian restaurants here; why don't we >have any Indian restaurants? Um, you know what I mean. Where can I get fry >bread besides the Berkeley powwow?" > >By the way: Do we have any Indian restaurants? You know what I mean. > >It's a big continent, and some of the newcomers did notice that there were >people already living here, sometimes even that they already had names for >places. Given the ways the original people usually made a living, it's no surprise >that so many names that have stuck are about plants — are oral maps to the big >outdoor larder, or tributes to, say, some memorable tree. > > And given also the fact that pre-European California was an incredibly >polyglot place, we have a wealth of puzzles to sort out if we start wondering what >on earth that name means. > >The best-known results still involve a lot of guesswork. The transliterations >here, by the way, are filtered through a number of English and Spanish >approximations as well as Faultline's typographical limitations. If you want to know >how to pronounce the originals, you'd best try to find a native speaker, and >good luck with that. > > The Cosumnes River has the Miwok name for toyon, whose berries were toasted >and eaten. The name toyon (which applies to lots of places, including a couple >of towns) is the Ohlone "totcon," filtered, like many of these names, through >Spanish. > >Hollywood seems to be named for the same plant, in a plain English misnomer: >Toyon has red winter berries and used to cover the hill the place is built on. >Los Angeles itself was built over a Gabrielino village called Yangna or >iyaanga, "poison oak place." > >This makes me wonder if the First Peoples might have done some >perimeter-security gardening there. If you've ever watched a horse noshing on poison oak, >you can guess about when that would have stopped working. I've heard that >American Indians were immune to poison oak, but both friends' experiences and the >number of "old Indian cures" I've seen for the rash would seem to belie that. > >More palatably, pine nuts gave names to Wahtoke, in Fresno County, and Tuba >Canyon in Death Valley. The latter's a Panamint word, and, alas, doesn't mean >"early big brass horn." I guess the same folks named Tubatulabal, which is from >a Kern County tribe's name that means " pine nut eaters." > >I'd like to know more about their cuisine myself; I've heard you can make a >nice butter out of sugar-pine nuts. Inyo's Tunawee Canyon is Panamint too: >neither the fish nor the cactus, Tunawee is mountain mahogany. > >Pine trees named Wassuma Creek in Madera County and Waucoba Mountain in Inyo. >That's more obvious in Spanish-named Mount Piños (where I was privileged to >see my first and last wild California condors) and Point Piños, and Piñon in >Riverside County. > >Wawona in Yosemite is named for redwoods (Genus Sequoiadendron rather than >Sequoia) and — straight from the Spanish — so is Palo Alto, after an individual >tree. > > Yosemite has quite a few indigenous (or indigenoid, anyway) names, including >Tenaya Lake, which appellation is, as I understand, a serious etiquette >blunder. The man of that name is long dead, and his people thought it a very nasty >thing to speak a dead person's name, let alone call a landscape feature by it. >Seems fairly embarrassing, especially when you read a bit of history. > >Yosemite is one of those places that Europeans thought to be beautiful, >untouched wilderness, especially the parklike valley floor. The historic joke on >them is that it was a beautiful much-touched garden, maintained intensively by >its inhabitants, whom, of course, the Europeans drove out in spite of Tenaya's >valiant defense. > >Well, there's no Chagrin Falls there, but there is Lehamite Falls, named for >"mock orange," our own Western Philadelphus species. > > Tarweed is a genus of yellow composites with fragrant, sticky leaves and >stems and nutritious little seeds, tasty when roasted. Yosemite's Tiltill Creek >is named for it, as are (probably) Suey Creek and (more likely) Lisque Creek in >Santa Barbara County. > > Hetten, Hettenshaw Valley, Kettenpom Valley and Kittinelbe, all in Trinity >and Humboldt counties, all take their names from the Wintu word for another >food plant, camas. That's a lily, and you eat the bulb, and you're very, very >careful not to confuse it with Zigadenus venosus. We have a lot of that Zigadenus >in the Bay Area (beautiful fields of it bloom in Marin County) and it's >called "death camas" for a very good reason. > > Plant identification is one gardening skill that has historically been a >matter of life and death. When the bulbs aren't ripe until the flowers and >foliage have dried out, it gets really tricky. Was every Wintu woman the equivalent >of a Japanese fugu chef, or were there specialists? I don't know. > > Polyglot? Oh yes — San Francisco's Islais Creek and Santa Barbara County's >Tajiguas are both named for the holly-leafed cherry. Tajiguas (pronounced >Spanish style) is a Chumash village name from tayiyas, and Islais (pronounced, >incomprehensibly, to rhyme more or less with "business") is from the local Spanish >islay, in turn from the Salinan "slay." It's a very nice bush or small tree, >but it isn't a single-malt Scotch. > > We don't call ourselves the Garden State here, but the place has been a >garden since long before it had the name California. This landscape didn't just >happen; it was cultivated and cared for. Some of the names on this land are a >lot like row markers or the tags in botanic gardens: labels for important crops >or just beautiful and beloved plants. Get a free connection, half-price modem and one month FREE, when you sign up for BT Broadband today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 So true! Jo i was very interested by your email about place names, history and plant names...............poignant that names so beautiful can also speak of lost cultures, ways of living, that were put down, obliterated when europeans arrived.............. a moment of thought and quiet to remember them.............. catherine ---Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).Version: 6.0.510 / Virus Database: 307 - Release 14/08/03 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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