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Advanced English Skills

10 Oct 2024 19:29

Have no fear! As it turns out, the Snake does not actually have any snakes in it. Why, then, is it called the Snake? While some may think that the reason it is called the Snake is because its shape has many twists and winds similar to a snake, it is actually believed to have received its name from a Native American hand symbol. Brief History of Names of the Snake River

Throughout the years, many explorers gave different names to the Snake. In 1800, David Thompson first recorded the Native American name of the Snake as Shawpatin. Next, Lewis and Clark gave the name Lewis River or Lewis Fork in 1805. Other American explorers’ records after Lewis and Clark show a variety of names associated with the river. Various stretches of the Snake have held at least fifteen different names throughout the years. These names include the Shawpatin River, Lewis River, Mad River, Shoshone River, and Saptin River. It wasn’t until the year 1912 that the United States Geographic Board made official the name, “The Snake River.” The Snake River Got It’s Name From a Misinterpretation

Over 11,000 years ago, the Snake was a vital source of life for the Native Americans, specifically the Shoshones, that were living along the banks of the river. While they weren’t Snake River rafting as we are today, the Snake was very important to them primarily because of the salmon from the Pacific Ocean. The Snake was given its present day name when it was derived from an S-shaped hand sign made by the Native American tribe, the Shoshones. European explorers misinterpreted this hand sign representing swimming fish as a snake. This hand sign is now thought to have truly meant, “the people who live near the river with many fish.”
Still a lot of surmises, so now we turn to the Idaho State Historical Society, whose Reference Series, Number 38 (February 1964) begins thus:

The Snake River is named for the Snake Indians, through whose country the greater part of the river flows. The Indians, in turn, were named "Snake" by their Plains neighbors to the east, possibly because they reputedly used snake heads painted on sticks to terrify their Plains enemies. (At least the Blackfeet on upper Bow River reported finding such Shoshoni snake sticks in about 1784.) Or possibly the sign employed to designate the Snake Indians in conventionalized sign language—a snake-like motion—may have suggested the name to the Plains Indian. In any event, the name used to identify the Snake Indians in various Plains Siouan languages was the word for snake or rattlesnake. The French picked up the name from the Plains Indians, and the British, in turn, translated it from the French.

Although it comes from the Idaho State Historical Society, this convoluted explanation is not satisfying to me.

A Tri-Cities radio station (10/10/23) has a record of an earlier version of Wikipedia that gives an even more whimsical explanation of the Shoshone sign language for the river:

In the early 1800s, explorers from Europe, who were in direct contact with the Shoshone tribe, misinterpreted Shoshone sign language. The Shoshone people described the river using an “S” shape swimming motion with their hands. The explorers interpreted this motion as a snake, not realizing what they really meant was a “river of many fish” or Salmon. Another version from Wikipedia, says, “the sign language used by the Shoshones representing weaving baskets was misinterpreted to represent a snake”. The Basket River? The Weaving River? The Salmon River?

It would have been so much more helpful if the many European explorers who passed through this region had asked the Shoshone or other tribes who lived along the Snake how they said its name in their spoken language. As a matter of fact, we already apparently do have this datum, and that is David Thompson's 1800 [more likely 1811 — see below] "Shawpatin" (probable contraction "Saptin")*. I put it as a task for Native American language specialists to interpret what that means (but see the Appendix).

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