Monday, September 2, 2013

Chief Spokane Garry's Real Name

Quoting from Jim Kershner's story in the Sunday, September 1st, Spokesman:  "Chief Spokane Garry (ca 1811-1892), the famed leader of the Spokane Indians, is one of the most extensively researched figures in Spokane's history. Yet history has long been silent about his original tribal name. Until now.

Two local, amateur historians have found definitive, written proof that Chief Spokane Garry's Salish language name was Slough-Keetcha."  And the article showed a facsimile of the written proof of his name and explain how the discovery was made. This was a good-read article and further proof that our Spokesman is worthy of our subscription.

Every person deserves to be know by his or her proper name. In the case of Spokane Garry, which was the name given to him by the white folks, he deserves to be known by his real name, Slough-Keetcha.

Is this information relevant to EWGS? Certainly for we strive to discover our ancestors real, full and proper names. And we're quite maddened with mention of Mrs. Andrew Smith. We know names are vitally important and we, too, seek after them.

Here's a name-funny I found in the 1860 census for the Western District of Washington County, Virginia (out in the westward-reaching toe of Virginia). On this census I found Leonidas LOVE, age 58, born Virginia, and his wife Freelove, age 56, born Virginia. Made me laugh:  Mrs. Freelove LOVE. And you?


2 comments:

Brian H. said...

Thank you for the mention of the fine article by Jim Kershner. Now I am wondering if I can find out how membership in the EWGS works. I may be an amateur historian, but I have been doing genealogical research since 1986. I still need to grow in my knowledge and skills, especially non-digital resources (although the microfilm work on Slough-keetcha was not too difficult).

Miriam Robbins said...

Hi, Brian,

Check out http://www.ewgsi.org/cpage.php?pt=45 to view information on membership.

I'd like to welcome you to our first meeting of the genealogical year (much like the school year). It will be this coming Saturday, September 7th from 1 to 3 PM in the main floor meeting room of the downtown public library. Susan Beamer, former EWGS president, will be giving a presentation on Court and Probate records. She used to work at the Eastern Washington Regional Archives. The meeting is free and open to the public.

If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to email me (Miriam Robbins - one of three team bloggers here at EWGS) at kidmiff@gmail.com.