For the Missoulians

This is an email my dad forwarded me from his friend Gyda.

"On Friday I asked Arleen Adams (who led the songs and prayers on the M on Friday) about the translation of Isul. I had read the word on the historic place sign that's in Hellgate Canyon right along the river and just off East Broadway between my condo and East Missoula. The sign said that the Salish people called this place (Missoula Valley) Isul-which is a shortened word. I wondered what Isul meant. Arleen told me Friday morning that it had something to do with "cold, it's cold." She went back and talked with Salish speakers and learned that the longer word for Missoula Valley is Nmesuletkw-which literally translated means "once it was frozen" referring to glacial lake Missoula.

"That word Nmesuletkw, is where the word Missoula comes from. It's an anglicized Salish word.

"This word just thrills me. It's a history lesson and a geography lesson. The Salish people remember in the place name for Missoula that there was once a glacier here.

"It's humbling...."

Gyda