Sec. A Page 18 Missoulian Centennial Early Authorities Gave Differing Views on Source of Name ‘Missoula’
Early Authorities Gave Differing Views on Source of Name ‘Missoula’
There are at least two popular versions concerning the derivation of the name of Missoula.
The one heard most often is that the designation came from Indian terms meaning “at the stream of surprise or ambush” or “at the stream of chilling water.”
‘Sparkling River’
The other is that the name was derived from Indian words meaning “sparkling river.”
[Duncan] McDonald, who was three-eighths Indian, said the Salish name for the stretch of the Clark Fork River from its junction with the Bitter Root River to its confluence with Flathead River was “In-mae-soo-latkhu.”
Early residents readily contracted this into its present form, pronouncing it “Mis-soo-la.” Before the days of mining along its upper reaches, the waters of the river were transparent and sparkling, glimmering in the summer sun.
Glistening Shells
Indian mythology* contains a story about the coyote, the fox and the river maidens which ends with the coyote tossing glistening shells, into which the maidens had been converted, into the Clark Fork River and proclaiming over the water: “As you glitter and glisten like unto the leaves of the quaking asp, so henceforth shall you be called ‘In-mae-soo-latkhu,’ sparkling river.”
‘Stream of Ambush’
Another interpretation is found in a book written by the Rev. Lawrence Benedict Palladino, S.J., who began his many years of work in Montana in 1867 at St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Father Palladino’s book, written in 1894, is called “Indian and White in the Northwest; or a History of Catholicity in Montana.”
Father Palladino wrote that the name Missoula seems to have been formed from some derivative of the Flathead radical “i-sul,” which means “cold,” “chilly,” either through a want of natural heat or from surprise or fear, as, chilled with fright; and conveys, therefore, the idea of a place of a surprise, or threatened, impending, or apprehended danger, arising, for instance, from a foe lurking in ambush.
Natural Gate
Thus the Indians called the mouth of the canyon and its approaches lying where the Rattlesnake enters the larger stream. This canyon, about one-eighth of a mile wide at its mouth, was a natural gate through which the Indians west of the range, the Flatheads, Pend d’Oreilles, Kalispels and Nez Perce, had to pass on their annual trips eastward to hunt the buffalo, and here in these fastnesses and narrow passes always lurked war parties of Blackfeet or Piegans, to give them battle and steal their horses.
Hence the ominous Indian name, which some French-speaking Iroquois and trappers who had wandered into the country, rendered very significant by Porte d’Enfer or Hell’s Gate. The appellation, in both its French and English renderings, passed to the river and to the first white settlement on its banks, a short distance below, while the Indian name, as frequently pronounced by the natives and half-breeds, and further euphonized by the whites into Missoula, was given to the town.
Words Broken Down
In a footnote, Father Palladino traces the word Missoula as follows:
The full Indian name was likely “Lm-i-sul-etiku” or Nm-i-sul-etiku,” contracted in pronunciation into “Lm-i-sule” or Nm-i-sule,” as we have heard it pronounced hundreds of times by both the natives and all the half-breeds in this part of Montana; “l” and “n” are prepositions and stand for “at,” “in,” “to,” etc., the former being more in use with the Flatheads, while the Kalispels and Spokanes employ more frequently the latter; “l” and “n” besides, when followed by “m,” are scarcely heard in pronunciation, and “m” or “nm” stands frequently for nem, which is the prefix or sign of the future tense.
‘Surprise’ Involved
From the radical “i-sul” or rather “sul,” since “I” is here a prefix, expressing “truly,” “altogether,” etc., and emphasizing the meaning of the root, are formed the derivative verbs ‘i-chin-sul,” I am taken by surprise, frightened, chilled with fear, etc., and “jes-sulem,” I take him by surprise, I chill him with fright, etc. The future tense of the latter verb would be “nem-sulem,” or “nm-i-sulem.” Whence “Lm-i-sul-etiku or Nm-i-sul-etiku” would seem to signify “at the stream or water of surprise, ambush,” etc., “etiku” standing in composition for water.
Still another theory is that the name Missoula came from an attempted pronunciation of Missouri in the early days of the area, but this appears to have little to back it up in comparison to the McDonald and Palladino versions.
*See the link below for an interpretation of this Indian myth by Helen F. Sanders