We were amused and surprised to see the big deal that was made of the "new" meaning of Sequim. Klallam speakers have known the origin of the name Sequim forever and linguists have known it at least since the 1960s when Laurence C. and M. Terry Thompson interviewed the late Elizabeth Prince, a speaker of the Klallam language at Jamestown, and Martha John of Port Gamble. There is nothing "new" about it. It is, in fact, ancient.

We would like to clarify a few things about that word and a few others of Klallam origin.

We have worked with recordings that the Thompsons made of Mrs. Prince and with recordings of Marion Vincent, Billy Hall and Amy Allen, who were recorded at Jamestown by anthropologist Leon Metcalf in the 1950s. None of us had a chance to study with these speakers in person. All of our work with living native speakers of Klallam has been at Becher Bay and Elwha, where there are still speakers of Klallam as a first language. The only living speaker of Klallam as a first language from Jamestown is Hazel Sampson, granddaughter of James Balch, the founder of Jamestown. She has lived at Elwha for most of her 100 years.

The first authoritative source of the "quiet waters" idea can be found in Edmond Meany's "Origin of Washington Geographic Names," published in 1923. This book has been the source for almost all subsequent Washington place-name etymologies.

Meany was a history professor and did original research on the place names by interviewing old-timers. He gives the Klallam pronunciation as "Such-e-kwai-ing", which is pretty close to the real Klallam pronunciation, sxw_kwíy . He credits the "quiet waters" idea to one Matthew Fleming, a white Sequim pioneer. None of Meany's sources are Indians and he did not know the languages, so chances are good that a number of his etymologies for names originating in Indian languages are wrong.



'Going for a shoot'

The Klallam word for Sequim means "place for going to shoot" and originally applied to the bay and was extended to refer to the plain inland from it. We cannot know for certain the origin of the "quiet waters" idea, but it may have something to do with a traditional method of hunting ducks. Traditionally waterfowl are hunted before sunrise in a canoe. The ducks sleep in quiet coves in bays while the hunters paddle silently in their canoe and shoot them silently with arrows before they can awake and flee. Imagine the following conversation between a native speaker of Klallam who knows some English and a white pioneer who does not know Klallam:

Pioneer: What do you call this place?

Klallam: Such-e-kwai-ing (sxw_kwíy ).

Pioneer: Why do you call it that?

Klallam: I guess because it's real quiet water there.

It's called "place for going to shoot" because the waters are quiet and good for duck hunting. The pioneer, in an honest mistake, thought an explanation was a definition and assumed it meant "quiet waters." This may not be how it happened, but it makes sense.



Other origins

Meany's book lists three other names with origins in the Klallam language: Elwha, Pysht and Ediz Hook. Of these, only his meaning for Ediz Hook is on track.

The Hook is named for the large Klallam village at the mouth of Ennis Creek ("Ediz" and "Ennis" come from the same Klallam source, ?i?ín_s) and it does mean, basically, "good place" as Meany states. It has a root meaning '"good" and a suffix used to indicate a broad area facing the water. Incidentally, the Klallam name for the hook is ?i?_qs_n "good point."

"Elwha" does not and never has meant "elk." The Klallam word for elk (sm_y_c, pronounced something like smyuhts) and the Chinook jargon word for elk (moolock) are entirely different from each other and neither looks nor sounds anything like "Elwha." The Klallam word that "Elwha" derives from, ?é?_xw_, is simply a proper noun, the Klallam name for the river. It has no known etymology. Meany gives the missionary Myron Eells as the source of this "elk" idea. Eells did not know the language and made many similar errors in his attempts to write Klallam.

Pysht comes from a very old Klallam word and has a similar, but not identical, pronunciation in the Quileute language. Meany gives a pretty good approximation of the Klallam name: "Pish-st." It's actually p__ct, more like "Puhsh-tst." It is not the Chinook jargon word for "fish" and never has meant "fish." The Klallam word has an identifiable root meaning "go against the flow (of water or wind)" and suffix meaning "self." It's unclear what it originally referred to, but perhaps it has to do with the way the river flows at the mouth or the way the wind comes around Pillar Point.



Not a true discovery

The story of the "discovery" of the original meaning of Sequim is very similar to the story of the "discovery" of the village at Tse-whit-zen a few years ago. Nobody ever thought to ask the native elders, who always have known.

We have video recorded in 1992, a decade before the "discovery," of Klallam elder Ed Sampson from Elwha speaking of the bones that were found when the Tse-whit-zen area was bull-dozed many years ago. In the recording, he lists the Klallam families that called the area home within living memory until they were forced to move.

Historical records suggest that the Klallam village and burial ground ?i?ín_s at the mouth of Ennis Creek was even bigger than Tse-whit-zen. It would do well for developers of that site to consult with elders early in the process.

Respect for the wisdom and knowledge of the native elders and consultation with them would have saved the state a lot of money and it would have saved Sequim residents a little surprise.



By Tim Montler, professor of linguistics at University of North Texas

Adeline Smith, Lower Elwha Klallam elder

Jamie Valadez, Lower Elwha Klallam educator

Wendy Sampson, Lower Elwha Klallam educator

Georgianne Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam educator

Teachers in the Klallam Language Program