MOUNT RAINIER.
U. S. INDIAN SERVICE.
Nisqually and Skokomish Agency, }
Tacoma, W. T., Dec. 8, 1886. }
W. G. Steel, Portland, Oregon:
Dear Sir:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of Sept. 21st, making certain inquiries about the change of the name of Mt. Rainier to that of Tacoma. Upon careful and diligent inquiry among the Puyallup Indians, I find the following to be the true condition of things:
There is a general impression that the name Tacoma was the original name of the mountain among Indians, and that it signified "nourishing mother," and was so named on account of its being the source of a number of rivers which head there and flow into the waters of Puget Sound. This, I find to be entirely erroneous. The Indian word is Ta-ko-bet or Ta-ke-man, the first being the most general pronunciation used among these Indians, but both words are used, being the different pronunciation used by the dialects. It means a white mountain, and is a general name for any high, snow-covered, or white, treeless peak. It is applied to this mountain by the Indians of this vicinity, because it is the only, or most prominent one of the kind in the vicinity. They use the word as we would speak of "The White Mountain," there being but one near us. In the Skadgit language, the word is a little different, and is there called Ko-ma, and is applied by these Indians to Mt. Baker, it being the mountain in that vicinity of the kind. The word Squa-tach, or Squat-letsh, is a general name for a range of mountains, while Ta-ko-bet or Ta-ko-man or Ko-ma is the name of the snow covered or white peaks in the range.
This information I have gained from inquiry of the Indians with whom I have come in contact and who live near here. I inclose a statement written out by Rev. Peter Stanup, an educated Indian of the Puyallup tribe, and who is unusually well informed on such matters.
As to when it was first applied and by whom I am not so well advised; but from what I do know, I understand that it was first applied to the mountains by the whites about twelve years ago, and at the same time that the town of Tacoma was laid out and located by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, or some of its attaches. I understand that the attempt was made by the N. P. R. R. Co. to have the name changed, and that it still makes strenuous efforts to do so. The people of the town of Tacoma, and the members of the Tacoma Land Company as well as the R. R. Co., above named, all try hard to have the mountain called by that name; while the residents of the other part of the Territory, west of the Cascade mountains and especially of Seattle, are very much opposed to the change, and continue to call it by its first name. I think that the facts are that the name Tacoma is an attempted imitation of an Indian term applied to any high, snow-covered peak, but which was supposed to be the special name of this peak, because generally used by the Indians of this vicinity, and that it was applied to this mountain at the time the town of Tacoma was located and named by the N. P. R. R. Co., for the purpose of bringing into note its western terminus.
Yours Respectfully,
EDWIN EELLS,
U. S. Indian Agent.