New Mt. Rainier Print Release with Pnwonderland
Wowwwweee…what a beautiful Spring it has been up here in the PNW! It’s been hot, it’s been cold, and we just got a dusting of snow on the tops of the hills last night. Looking forward to the heat again next week and those sweaty summer nights around the corner.
We partnered up with the good folks at Pnwonderland again to release our second print in the Cascade range volcano series. This one features the mighty Mt. Rainier! First Nation peoples had a lot of different names for this peak (The tallest in the Cascade range at 14,411ft!). The people of the Puyallup tribe have known the mountain as Tahoma or Tacoma for who knows how long before Captain George Vancouver named the peak in honor of his friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier Jr.
I’m all for changing these significant geologic landmarks back to the names given by the native people, they had so much more history and meaning:
“By definition, Tahoma can mean mother of waters or that frozen water both recognizing the glaciated peak as the significant source that it is. The word is also understood to mean large snowy mountain, a trait it certainly exemplifies. Another etymological explanation derives from definitions of the name’s component parts in the Lashootseed language; Ta (larger/taller) Koma-Kulshan (name for Mount Baker). Farther afield names such as Talol and Ti’Swaq are also applied to the mountain, reflecting the relativity with which native place names must be approached. (Source)”