Camchin

Camchin, also spelled Kumsheen, is an anglicization of the ancient name for the locality and aboriginal village once located on the site of today's Village of Lytton, British Columbia, Canada, whose name in the Nlaka'pamux language is ƛ'q'əmcín [1]It also refers to the main Indian Reserve community of the Lytton First Nation adjacent to the Village of Lytton and is found in the form Kumsheen in local business and school names.

Name origin

The name means in general rivers meeting, but has also been translated "crossing over"[2] and "the great fork".[3] A more accurate interpretation of the name means, "The place inside the heart where the blood mixes". It is the ancient Nlaka'pamux name for the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers in the Fraser Canyon of British Columbia, Canada. The meaning refers to the location as the heart of the Nlaka'pamux Nation,[4] and a creation story that accounts the Nlaka'pamux hero "Coyote" being disemboweled by a giant shape shifting spirit-being known as "the Transformer", his heart being thrown into the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers.

References

  1. ↑ Thompson, Laurence C. and M. Terry Thompson (1996). Thompson River Salish Dictionary. Missoula, Montana: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. (University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics, No. 12).
  2. ↑ "Camchin (former locality)". BC Geographical Names.
  3. ↑ "Lytton (village)". BC Geographical Names.
  4. ↑ The Resettlement of British Columbia, Cole Harris, UBC Press

Coordinates: 50°14′00″N 121°34′00″W / 50.23333°N 121.56667°W / 50.23333; -121.56667

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