Each band, not to say each individual, had a peculiar reason for his name of it, contingent upon color, shape or function. In that interview, the literal translations of their syllabic combinations appertaining more or less in sound to the syllables constituting the name Tacoma—Te-ho-ma, Ta-ko-ber, Tak-o-man, etc., as rendered by the venerable John Flett, a truthful, skillful and reliable Indian authority was—"A woman's breast that feeds," a "nourishing breast." To one band, the shape of the cone suggested the breast shape for a name; to another, the milky whiteness was a reminder of the source of nourishment; to another, the color of the streams which flow down from the mountain in the annual freshets, gave origin to the idea of the generous fountain of the great milk-white breast-shaped sentinel for ages; while the Puyallups and 'Squallys, more practical in view, associated the fact that from the mountain rushed the torrents of white water, resembling milk, which fertilized the valleys of Puget Sound. While such was the conversation and speech of those old patriarchs, several of whom had lived to become octogenarians, communicated as above stated, the writer is well aware that across the mountain chain, residing in the vicinity of the mountain, that several bands of the Klickitat nation attach different meanings for synonymous syllabic combinations approximating in sound to the combinations referred to used by Western Washington bands, with shades of meaning more practical, less figurative, less Indian; but the writer has been content to accept as authority, at all events so far as the Aborigines of Western Washington are concerned, the result of the conference of Indian patriarchs convened at his instance in 1882. While that conference failed to establish that there was such an Indian word as "Tacoma," or that these Indians had any distinctive Indian names for "Mount Rainier," or that there was any recognized Indian name known to the several tribes; yet, the different bands did use such syllabic utterances, by which they referred to the mountain chain, to the leading mountain of the chain. That color, shape, and attributed function, suggested such expression, and that the combination of syllables which have been so euphoniously metamorphosed into the beautiful word "Tacoma," when pronounced by them in its native utterances, meant as herein expressed. The writer, however, finds no warrant for adopting Tacoma as an Indian word, nor does he believe that such word, or its approximate, was a name conferred by Indians upon the mountain, or exclusively recognized as the name of the mountain by the original natives of this region.
ELWOOD EVANS.
PRESIDENTS OF THE OREGON ALPINE CLUB.
OREGON ALPINE CLUB.
The Oregon Alpine Club was organized in 1887, and incorporated October 7th of that year. It was originally intended merely as an organization among half a dozen friends who were in the habit of seeking adventure and recreation in the mountains.
After considering the matter for a time a meeting, was called, and more persons attended than were expected. A committee was appointed on rules, the adoption of which required several meetings, so that when the organization was completed there were over seventy charter members on the roll.