Another Oregon coast folk etymology? Siuslaw and ‘far away’
Honestly, you can add this one to the pile of things I thought I’d already written up.
The excellent tribal linguist Patricia Whereat Phillips once wrote on her blog (which is one of my favorites to read, of all time) about “Meanings of Tribal Names“.
Far away in the Siuslaw (image credit: Oregon is for Adventure)
Among the tribes she discusses in that piece are the Shaiyuushhla, the Siuslaw. Patricia mentions that
A myth has sprung up that Siuslaw means ‘far away water’. It doesn’t. The Siuslaws called their river iktatuu, the big one.
(Which is reminiscent of various Pacific NW tribes’ languages calling their primary body of water ‘the big water’.)
Patricia says more about this, but go read her words yourself, please. She’s an unbelievably deep source of knowledge.
This is where I would like to step in to add that one probable reason for the urban legend about “Shaiyuushhla” meaning ‘far away water’ is Chinook Jargon.
We’ve seen Oregon Coast Indigenous place names get reinterpreted in English and CJ during the colonial (Settler) period — names such as the Athabaskan-derived Sixes, Euchre Creek, and Coquille.
And I really suspect Shaiyuushhla received the same treatment by folks who didn’t understand the Shaiyuushhla language: I think it must have been thought to contain Chinuk Wawa’s sáyá ‘far away’!
Such is the powerful force of folk etymology.
Bonus fact:
Let’s take note also of Patricia’s comment that the Upper Coquilles, who I understand to have been Athabaskans, were known as dineyuu among other names, apparently by the Coos (Bay) tribes.
Am I the only one here who perceives the typical Athabaskan word dine for ‘people’ here?
