mollymae
9th June 2010, 01:20
This is something that has been talked about recently in my area so I thought I'd share.
PUYALLUP -- Having a truly righteous idea, Robert Satiacum says, is like a warm shower.
"You know the feeling," he said. "You adjust the temperature a little bit this way, a little bit that way and when it's just perfect you just stand there and go 'Ahhh' while it flows over you."
That's the way he felt, said Satiacum, a member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, when it came to him that the original name of the Northwest's tallest mountain needed to be restored.
That was several months ago, and since then Satiacum's idea has grown into an American Indian crusade - not just to start calling Mount Rainier "Ti'Swaq," but to restore traditional names of spiritual places throughout the Pacific Northwest.
"We're getting calls from all over," Satiacum said. "This has taken on a life of its own."
...
Strictly speaking, Satiacum said, they're not asking that Mount Rainier's name be changed, but that its real name be restored. The mountain already had a name for thousands of years when Europeans arrived, he points out.
George Vancouver was the one who changed it, he said, to honor a British military man who had never set foot on North America and, in fact, fought against Americans during their revolution.
Today's rally is about more than just names. The real issue, Satiacum said, is American Indian pride and respect.
The audacity of European explorers who put their own names on whatever they found was a symbol of the disrespect and aggression that all but destroyed indigenous people, he said.
"You don't just barge into somebody's house and say, 'This is what things are going to be called,'" he said. "They stripped our culture down to the bare metal. We need to start righting those wrongs."
...
I only posted the more relevant parts, here's the full article:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/420883_rainier30.html
This kind of thing gets brought up every few years. I'm sure nothing will happen unfortunately but it's still good to hear that others are attempting it and educating others along the way.
PUYALLUP -- Having a truly righteous idea, Robert Satiacum says, is like a warm shower.
"You know the feeling," he said. "You adjust the temperature a little bit this way, a little bit that way and when it's just perfect you just stand there and go 'Ahhh' while it flows over you."
That's the way he felt, said Satiacum, a member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, when it came to him that the original name of the Northwest's tallest mountain needed to be restored.
That was several months ago, and since then Satiacum's idea has grown into an American Indian crusade - not just to start calling Mount Rainier "Ti'Swaq," but to restore traditional names of spiritual places throughout the Pacific Northwest.
"We're getting calls from all over," Satiacum said. "This has taken on a life of its own."
...
Strictly speaking, Satiacum said, they're not asking that Mount Rainier's name be changed, but that its real name be restored. The mountain already had a name for thousands of years when Europeans arrived, he points out.
George Vancouver was the one who changed it, he said, to honor a British military man who had never set foot on North America and, in fact, fought against Americans during their revolution.
Today's rally is about more than just names. The real issue, Satiacum said, is American Indian pride and respect.
The audacity of European explorers who put their own names on whatever they found was a symbol of the disrespect and aggression that all but destroyed indigenous people, he said.
"You don't just barge into somebody's house and say, 'This is what things are going to be called,'" he said. "They stripped our culture down to the bare metal. We need to start righting those wrongs."
...
I only posted the more relevant parts, here's the full article:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/420883_rainier30.html
This kind of thing gets brought up every few years. I'm sure nothing will happen unfortunately but it's still good to hear that others are attempting it and educating others along the way.