Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1916-09-12

Oregonian In The Oregonian un-
der the caption, "Mr. Ford Answers
Critics. is letter from j. I. Ford,
Of Dallas, the principal reason Tor
which seems to be to introduce new
witness in the person Of the late jesse
Applegate, in support Of his conten-
tion for the so-called Indian name OF
Rickreall, but in which he also de-
votes considerable space to myself,
hence this letter,
In a previous letter he refers to
'slong talks" that his father, Mark
A. Ford, had with "Quata la, Vhe
aged chief of the Rickrealls." " Now,
the fact is, so far from being chief
of the mythical Rickrealls, Quata la
was chief of the Klickitats, and not
being a native of that locality, prob
ably knew no more about the name
Rickreall than he knew about the
Gulf stream, and as to being 1.-THE
aged chief who was there before the
coming of the white man, according
to my recollection Of him he was not
more than so at the most.
To my assertion that an Indian
could not pronounce the word Kick
reall," owing to the fact that he
could not articulate the sound OF
"r,'' he only replies wonderful, "
which, to one who knows so little
about an Indian, no doubt it is. As
/ have so fully explained the reason
for this popularity, one is led to won
der whether Mr.. Ford can read PLAIN
United States in any other sense than
that in which he wishes it to read.
When / hear an individual, be he
white, brown or black, say "lope
for rope "glease," for grease, and
SO on, wherever the sound OF r.
should be, have all the evidence nee
essary to establish my case that that
man did not originate the name Rick
reall.
As a clincher Mr.. Ford quotes The
Oregonian of 1851 as mentioning
"the country between the Rickreall
and Yamhill rivers" Fortunately,
have the means Of throwing a great
light on some Of the mongrel names
Of that early period. | have little
book before me entitled, "Rhymes o1
EARLY Life in Oregon and Historlca
and Biographical Facts" by John
Minto, a pioneer of 1914. There are
few Of the pioneer settlers OF Oregon
who do not know and revere the name
of John Mimic, but to those who have
not been so fortunate it will suffice to
saw no man ever questioned eithel
his veracity or his judgment.
On page 40 of his book we find thu
following, viz: "They were set across
and, going southwark, they conveyed
to other natives that they had cross
ed San-de-am's River The whites
shortened the name to Santiam, al
they did Yam-ill to Yamhill. P" Thest
names are quite as old as Rickreall
and yet, according to unimpeachabl'
authority, they are but an limitation
of the original Indian names, and this
being the case, what about Mr.. Ford &
rhapsodies over those ''euphonious
Indian names? And this is only
part. We have Luckiamute for Luc
a-mi-uke, Willamette for Walamet,
etc, as | have heard the Indians pro
nounce these names hundreds OF
times.
Concerning the advertisement ii
the Oregon Spectator of April 80
1886, prepared by John E. Lyell,
if Mr.. Lyle mot "Lyell) had prepar-
ed it himself, it is quite unlikely that
he would have miscalled his own
name. and we may fairly infer that
Mr.. Lyle simply stated what he want
ed and left the matter in the hands
of the editor, who followed the Gus
tom as to Rickreall.
If it will be any comfort to thost
who hold to the name Ricllreall, "
am quite willing to ,tate that ! have
heard the stream called by that name
as far back as my Emory rims, but
that dgssHt establ u the validity OF
il as1of Indian or N. while the pc
eMiarities of the indian sIeech o.
,/fhose times, as q eady alllded to
point conclusively A the fact that i
is not an Indian NJ e. By whom, o.
how it originated l have not th'
slightest notion in the world, but, ow
ing to the fact that an Indian that
know in boyhood days pronounced TIN
word "Lac-le-ole," which is precisel.
as an Indian would pronounce La
Creole, is my reason for thinking tina
Rickreall is a corruption of tina
word.
FRANK NJ. SEBRING