Kicki-Cialis: Clam with Better Blood Flow
If you’ve lived long enough on the island to experience one commute on Camano, you probably know already Camano was named after Jacinto Caamano, a Spanish explorer who did a drive-by sail about 1792 or so, Course, this is the white folks’ history. They sail a little boat up and down the west coast, thinking they’re in China or Mars, then they give it their name, stick a flag in the sand and voila, it’s theirs.
Well, the Snohomish and Kikalo tribes beg to differ. They lived on the end of Camano from about the turn of the Ice Age and they never called it Camano. Actually, they called it Kal-lut-chin, which means ‘land jutting into a bay.’ The Southendomish, being a breakaway tribe of the Snohomish people, called the island by its Lushootseed language name.
I was just at a Tribal Meeting at the Southendomish Casino last week. Okay, mostly I was there for the blackjack tables and wandered accidentally into the inner sanctum past the men’s room. They were pretty wound up that President Obama had jetted right over them to hightail it up to Alaska where he restored Mt. McKinley to its rightful native name: Denali. They were hoping the South End Historical Society could maybe write to the Great White Chief and ask if he could restore the original name for their homeland. Kicki-Cialis. Roughly translated, it means Clam with Better Blood Flow.
I said I would do what I could. That’s when they asked me to leave…. Okay by me, I really needed that men’s room.
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