Tyee - The Big Chief

Tyee Lake was called after Big Chief - it means big chief
But Tyee is not shuswap
It's chinook,i think
But its not my language

Pashish'kwa - that means lake in my language
Shadad'kwa - that means river

I can't tell you how to spell it,
But that's how we say it.
It's a hard language,shuswap - real hard

When i got out of mission school
I had to ask what the 'indians' were saying
I couldn't understand them.
I almost forgot my own language.
It's shuswap,my language.


Mary Augusta Tappage -1888~1978