In this day when, according to perhaps too sanguine recent reports, physical anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, folklore, and archaeology are happily converging, it was a shock to hear that a relatively well-known archaeological site on the north side of the Grand Dalles of the Columbia River in the state of Washington is commonly referred to as Wakemáp (rhymes with “lakemap”). According to John M. Corbett of the U.S. National Park Service who has recently visited this old site, originally described in 1805 by Lewis and Clark, such a completely anglicized pronunciation is now common currency among the various archaeological field parties who have been working at or near the site during the last few years, and he never heard of or thought of it as being pronounced otherwise.

Actually, the near-correct pronunciation is Wakemap (rhymes with “knock ‘em up”). (For a phonetic rendering see Spier and Sapir 1930: 164.) The name is Wishram in derivation, as given by Sapir (1909:201), and the traditional site was so identified and designated by Schenck and myself in 1924 (Strong, Schenck, and Steward 1930: 6, 8), and by the Indians in that vicinity.