Cards And Cover Postmarked With American Indian Names

Rather than hijacking codexluminati's thread "Meanings of native American town names in USA postmarks" I though that I would begin a new thread with Native American Names in the postmark.

I collect the postal history of Northern California's Redwood Empire, which is basically two counties, Humboldt and Mendocino.

Arcata, ..where there is a lagoon'. Although Arcata is in Wiyot tribal territory, white settlers took the name from the Yurok tribe. *





Cahto..water, lake, From Northern Pomo khato *




Cleone..name derived from the name of the Keliopomo, the northernmost tribe of Pomo Indians, but may be just a girl's name *




Comptche..Probably an Indian name, possibly from the Pomo village Komacho *




Gualala..water go down place, is Southwestern (Kashaya) Pomo walaali *




Hoopa Valley..The name is not from the language of the resident Hupa (Athabaskan )tribe, but from the name for the valley in the langauge of the neighboring Yourk tribe. *




Iaqua.. How do you do?, a greeting in Yurok or friend in now extinct Wiyot *



Kibesillah..flat rock..Northern Pomo *




Noyo..under the dust or ashes, name of former Pomo village *




Ukiah..derived from Central Pomo yo'qhaaya meaning south valley *



Weitchpec..confluence, from Yurok weeprc or weepus *




* California Place Names by Erwin G. Gudde

Awesome, my head hurts from trying to pronounce some of the words (place names and the like).
This forum is jam packed with information - Glad to have stumbled across you guys.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

Thanks for sharing these interesting covers. I might imagine one could go in many directions with a collection like this since there are so many towns all over the country that have Indian names. By the way, if you decide to exhihit at a show or such at some point you may want to consider renaming your exhibit "American Indian" names. The term "Native American" is a bit out of use these days. Though if you are talking about Alaskan or Hawaiian indigenous peoples the correct terms these days would be "Alaska Native" or "Native Hawai'ian". I know these are fine points, but I think it is important to be as respectful as possible to what people wish to be called.

Thank you for your comments.
The hardest name to pronounce of that group is Gualala, if you pronounced the G, it was wrong! :) It is pronounced Walalala.

I've changed the title to the more correct American Indian. I concidered California Indian briefly, but went with American to include more possible posts. These covers are a small part of the larger Redwood Empire collection.

I think you have one too many "la"'s in there. According to the link below, natives are said to pronounce it Wa-LA-la, which comes from the Kashaya Pomo Indian phrase, "ah kha wa la lee" which means, "Where the water flows down":

http://gualala.com/

What a beautiful examples you have there, the more I see the American Inadian cancel names the more I like them.