THE TWAI^A, CHEMAKUM, a:N^D KLALLAM INDIANS, OF 

 WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



By Rev. Myron Eells. 



NAMES AND SITUATIONS OF THESE TRIBES. 



Twanas. — The uarae of the Twanas is spelled Tooau-hooch, iu their 

 treaty. The Klallams pronounce it Tu-an'-hu. The Twanas say Tu- 

 ad-hii. The difference between the Klallam and the Twana language 

 here exemplified is often observed — the Klallam being the more nasal. 

 These various pronunciations have been shortened into Twana, now 

 used in all governmental reports. It is said to mean a portage, and to 

 be derived from the portage between the head of Hood's Canal and the 

 main waters of the Sound, where the Indian, by carrying his canoe 3 

 miles, avoids rowing around a peninsula 50 miles long. 



These Indians originally occupied both sides of Hood's Canal, and 

 were divided into three bands, the Du-hle-lips, Skokomish, and Kolsids. 

 The Du hie lips lived at the head of the canal, where a small stream 

 empties into it, now called Du-lay-lip. Fifteen miles below them were 

 the Skokomish, who lived around the mouth of the river of that name, 

 now their reservation. This word is pronounced Ska-ka-bish by the 

 Twanas and Skaka-mish by the Klallams. The Americans have 

 changed it to Skokomish, and thus they universally spell the name of 

 the river, reservation, and post-oflBce. Dr. Gibbs, in vol. i, "Contribu- 

 tions to North American Ethnology," gives this as the name of the tribe, 

 but it was originally the name of only one band. Yet even now, because 

 of its being the name of the reservation and river, these Indians are 

 known fully as well by the name Skokomish to the whites on the Sound 

 as by the name Twana. Skokomish means the "River People;" ka, sig- 

 nifying fresh water, is doubled to denote one form of the plural, proba- 

 bly because of the size of the river, which is by far the largest that 

 empties into the canal. The termination ish is very common for the 

 Indian names of tribes and streams on the Sound. I incline to the opin- 

 ion that it comes from what is called the old original form of plural iu 

 the Twana language — the suffix obish. 



There are two ways of forming the plural — one by reduplication, the 

 other by adding this termination; both seem to be combined in this 

 word. The prefix letter o is, I have often noticed, in other words. 



605 



