1909: Kermit Roosevelt, Bwanna Mtoto
An Oregon newspaper must have had a political grudge against President Teddy Roosevelt, or at least his son.
Kermit Roosevelt (1889-1943) was a well-known explorer and hunter of big game, whose exploits received lots of US press coverage.
Image credit: Wikipedia
In the post-frontier era, in Salem, Oregon, the following gratuitous comment about him was used as filler between news articles about other topics:
Kermit Roosevelt has been given
a name of his own by the jungle na-
tives; it is Bwanna Mtoto, which
translated into Chinook would prob-
ably read “tenas cultus.”— from the Salem (OR) Daily Capital Journal of May 20, 1909, page 1, column
Tenas cultus is not a compliment. It’s either
- tənəs-kʰə́ltəs ‘a bit worthless; sort of a bum’
- or tənás kʰə́ltəs ‘kid who is worthless/is a bum’
