The Stolen Name of the Mountain
A rare 1883 editorial lamenting the erasure of Indigenous names and the commodification of the landscape.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Indian name of Mount Rainier was Tacoma: meaning, according to some, 'snow mountain;' according to others, 'heart food,' or 'breast food.' One catches a glimpse through the clumsy English phrase of a subtly beautiful idea, and a sentiment worthy of the mountain and of the reverential Indian nature. It is a shame to abandon the name. Retaining it for the town is a small atonement for stealing it from the mountain. There seems a perverse injustice in substituting the names of wandering foreigners, however worthy, for the old names born of love, and inspired by poetry we know not how many centuries ago; names sacred, moreover, as the only mementoes which, soon, will be left of a race that has died at our hands.
“There seems a perverse injustice in substituting the names of wandering foreigners... for the old names born of love.”
This reflects an early public consciousness regarding the 'vanishing race' narrative common in 19th-century white journalism. While patronizing by modern standards, its explicit recognition of colonial displacement and the loss of Indigenous place-names provides a stark contrast to typical territorial reporting of that year.
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