Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-27

Once more the family quarrel,
which for many years has caused po-
lite visitors to the southwestern cor
ner of the State of Washington to
stutter whenever they wished to re-
fer to the great peak that dominates
the landscape about Puget Sound has
made itself heard across the CONT
Eent.
The question was taken to Con-
Sress last winter in the form of
resolution presented by Senator c. c.
Dill to change the name Rainier to
Tacoma" and is now in the public
lands committee of the House await
ing report from the United States
Geographic Board Nov, the Olympia
Chamber of Commerce and the
Thurston County Pioneer and His
torical Society jointly have issued a
pamphlet which fairly snorts with
indignation at what P. u. Range,
secretary of the Pioneer Association
of the State, calls the biggest land
grab since Noah homesteaded Mount
Ararat"
An imposing list of chambers of
commerce, historians, pioneers, news
papers, Government officials and au-
thorities on the Indian jargon are
quoted. Briefly, the case of the advo-
Gates of Mount Rainier" is about
like this:
On May 8, 1892, Capt. George VAN
couver made the following entry in
his diary, published in his account
of "A Voyage of Discovery to the
North Pacific Ocean and Round the
World:
THE weather was serene and
pleasant, and the country continued
to exhibit between us and the east
ern snowy range the same luxurious
appearance. At its northern extrem-
ity Mount Baker bore by compass
n. % E.; the round snowy mountain
now forming its southern extremity,
and which. after my friend, Rear Ad-
miral Rainier, l distinguished by the
name of Mount Rainier, bore n. (S.)
~ e."
Calls 1t Tacoma.
Seventy years after that, in 1862. one
Theodore Winthrop made a trip by
Indian canoe from Port Townsend to
the Hudson'S Bay post at Nisqually
and thence over the Cascade Noun
tains to The DalleS on horseback,
after which he wrote a book. Canoe
and Saddle published in 1863. after
his death, and in which he said: LOT
all the peaks from California to
Frazer's River this one before me was
royalest. Mount Regnier. the Chris
menclature. perpetuating the name of
somebody or nobody. More melodi-
ously the Siwashes call it Tacoma
generic term also applied to all
snow peaks"
Clarence B. Bagley. president of the
Washington University State His
torical Society, says:
Until the appearance of Win
throp's book. The Canoe and the
Saddle. Mount Rainier was the only
name in use in newspaper and more
serious literature. In 1868 a saw
milling town on Commencement Bay
was named Tacoma, and in 1878, when
the Northern Pacific Railway Com
pany located its western terminus on
Puget Sound, it called its embryo
town New Tacoma During the next
ten years, or until 1888. the use Of
Mount Rainier was universal. colo
Quially and in the press. That year,
between February and May, the news
papers of the city of Tacoma began
applying the name of Mount Tacoma
to the mountain, following the sug-
gestions or orders emanating from the
office Of the Northern Pacific Railway
Company at ST. Paul The demand for
the change of name has always come
from the officers of that company
and the people of Tacoma. 1t has
never been actuated by "A desire to
perpetuate the original Indian names
Of this region, but one word has been
singled out as a means of advertis
ing a particular city"
Not Indian Word.
P. D. Range, secretary of the
Pioneer Association of the State,
says: THE word Tacoma in its pres
emit form Is not an Indian word The
letter m is as difficult of pronuncia-
ton to the Indian as the English J.
to the Scandinavian or r to the
Chinaman, and is rendered either
'bh' or p Cowlitz, Klickitat and
other tribes, speaking cultural dia-
lect, call the mountain 'P-sk-houks,'
which is generally written Puske
house,"