The True Names of The Mountain

The Puyallup Tribe recently released a paper called An analysis of the names for Mount Rainier by Zalmai ʔəswəli Zahir, Ph.D. The question, “What is the original Native name for Mt. Rainier and what does it mean?” has been a topic of conversation and debate for longer than Tacoma has even been a city. In recent years, the community’s desire for clarification has only increased.

The original paper was published in the journal Living Languages and can be read in its entirety online or downloaded as a PDF. The Puyallup Language Program published a more concise version of the paper on their website and does a better job than I will here of applying context to the Puyallup Tribe and their relationships with other local tribes. I highly recommend reading the source material and using the resources provided by the Tribe to learn more.

If you’re looking for a conclusive, “Here’s the real name of the mountain” though, you may be disappointed. The paper identifies 20 different names for the mountain based on seven different languages, most of which have multiple dialects.

The Puyallup Tribe, for example, speaks a dialect of Lushootseed known as Twulshootseed. This language is spoken by different tribes as far north as what is now Bellingham and well into the Olympic Peninsula to the west. Within Lushootseed alone, there are nine variations of the name. Examples of the Lushootseed alphabet including pronunciation and a brief history of its creation can be found here.

Table 1: Words associated with Mount Rainier that begin with /t/

Table 2: words associated with Mount Rainier that contain xʷaq’ʷ, wak’ʷ or wək’ʷ

Table 3: Upper Chehalis and Chinuk Wawa words associated with Mount Rainier

This lack of simplicity can be frustrating to people who understand the absurdity of the name Mount Rainier* and are looking for a more appropriate alternative that acknowledges the indigenous cultures who named it first. That kind of homogeneity doesn’t fit with the history of this region, though. Claiming ownership of land, subjugation of the people who live there, and audacious renaming of landmarks on a whim is a relatively modern phenomenon and not one common to the tribes that have lived here for thousands of years.

It’s also worth noting that this paper is not meant to be seen as the final word. Restoration of the mountain’s current name to an ancestral name is important to many people across multiple tribes and there is more research and input to be considered before anything is officially decided.

What this paper brings to the conversation is a scientific analysis of the various names within the context of indigenous culture and narratives about the mountain. The sources range from recordings of first language speakers from different regional tribes to books and field notes of researchers to newspaper articles. The most direct sources were prioritized, though.

“I consider the personal communication, audio recordings and dictionary sources as the most reliable sources,” Dr. Zahir wrote in his paper, “These materials are from 1st language speakers and by linguists who had the ability to pronounce and/or write words associated with Mount Rainier accurately.”

He continued, “The Wickersham publication and the ethnographic notes I cite for this paper are from the 1890s and early 1900s. The words associated with Mount Rainier from these sources are not as reliable as those just mentioned. The scholars who recorded these words were not trained linguists. They used letters that were inadequate to fully represent the sounds of these languages. Their information is useful though, when these older documents are analyzed with the more reliable sources just mentioned above.”

“Ethnologists as early as the 1870s have recorded names for Mount Rainier, including: Takobet, Takoman, Ta-co-man, Ta-co-ban, Tacobut, Tacobet Tahoma, TcWauck and Ta-kob (Wickersham & Tacoma Academy Of Science, 1893; Zahir, Forthcoming). However, these scholars often limited themselves to only use an English based alphabet that lacks the ability to record the several nonEnglish sounds found in the phonetic inventory of Salishan and other neighboring languages.”

The paper goes on to explain the etymological structure and evolution of each name and the translations and meanings behind them. Its historical significance can’t be understated given the context of our local history. These names come from cultures that were very nearly eradicated as the city we now live in grew to prominence. The fact that we’re able to learn about this from the people who speak the languages and know the history as their own family lineage is remarkable and worth celebrating.

Dr. Zahir concludes the paper by saying, “If the reader was hoping for an easy answer as to what name is best to use for an official national renaming of Mount Rainier, they should expect to do further research and work on community attitudes and social relationships. Renaming this most important mountain is a cultural, social, and political issue, and I would suggest a spiritual matter, as well. For the renaming of the mountain to be done correctly, it will take much more leg work and community activism that is necessary to extract the correct name for kayəʔ ‘Grandmother’ *taqʷuʔman’/*nə(xʷ)xʷak’ʷ/ nšʔaʔk’ʷiyqł/ya lamətay. Given the plethora of diverse names for Mount Rainier mentioned in this paper, I suggest that it would be good for communities to reconcile upon a name that best reflects this diversity. By pursuing this manner with careful thought, intention and understanding, hopefully the mountain and all her grandchildren will be well honored.”

*Peter Rainier was an enemy of the United States who fought against independence in the Revolutionary War. George Vancouver named multiple landmarks after friends in England as well as officers on his ship when he sailed through the Salish Sea in 1792. This includes Mt. Baker, Mt. St. Helens, a handful of islands, and the Puget Sound itself. He wrote it on a map and everyone just went along with it.