SASKATOON
Unique among Canadian cities, this pert metropolis was founded as the proposed capital of an alcohol-free country. The teetotalers in question began in Ontario in 1882, and chartered themselves as The Temperance Colonization Society.
That same year they bought 100,000 acres of land from the Dominion Government in what is now the province of Saskatchewan. By 1883 a party of settlers was eager to flee the gin-soaked inferno of Ontario. They went west by train to Moose Jaw, then trekked overland to a place the Cree Indians had named because there were many saskatoon-berry bushes in the vicinity.
The Cree word for the succulent purple berry, also called serviceberries, is misa-skwato-min. This means literally "quick berries", because, if you ate too many, you could get the serviceberry trots. They went through your system quickly.
Saskatoon berries, ripe and ready for picking
The same Cree root skwato 'quick' is in Saskatchewan, the name of the river kisiskat-chewan which means 'swift flowing,' that is, quick river or quick current. The Saskatchewan was considered a quick-flowing river.
Note how onomatopoeia operates in many languages, including English and Cree. Ki-saskat sounds quick. The sound of the word imitates its meaning. Chewan flows gently as a word for stream or river or current. In this word also, the sound imitates its basic sense, which is what the fancy literary word onomatopoeia means. Examples of English words that are onomatopoeic are bow-wow, cuckoo, buzz, clang, and croak.
© 1972 Canada Post
Canadian postage stamp celebrating the South Saskatchewan River