Skookum facts for kids

Skookum is a cool word from the Chinook Jargon language, which was used a lot in the Pacific Northwest long ago. It has many meanings, but it often means "strong" or "really big and powerful."

The word can mean "strong," "greatest," "powerful," "ultimate," or "brave." If something is skookum, it means it's super strong or very important. When you say "he's skookum" about a person, it means they are reliable, strong, big, or work very hard.

What Does Skookum Mean?

The word skookum has several interesting uses and related words.

Skookum Places and Things

• Skookum house: This means 'jail' or 'prison'. Think of it as a 'strong house' where people are kept.
• Skookum tumtum: This literally means "strong heart." It's usually translated as 'brave' or 'kind-hearted'.
• Skookumchuck: This means 'turbulent water' or 'fast-moving rapids'. The word chuck in Chinook Jargon means 'water', 'stream', or 'lake'. So, skookumchuck means 'strong water'. You'll find this name in many places in British Columbia, Washington, and Idaho, especially for places with strong tidal currents like the Skookumchuck Narrows.

Skookum as a Monster

Sometimes, a skookum is described as a type of mountain giant or monster. It's similar to creatures like Sasquatch or Bigfoot. In some areas where the original Chinuk-Wawa language is still spoken, this monster version is pronounced a bit differently: skoo-KOOM.

People also believed that skookums were bad spirits or devils. These spirits could appear as crows, eagles, owls, blue jays, or other animals and reptiles. They were thought to cause serious illnesses in people.

Skookum Dolls: A Popular Souvenir

The name "Skookum" was also given to a type of souvenir doll, sometimes just called "a skookum." These dolls were very popular from the early 1920s to the 1960s.

How Skookum Dolls Were Made

• Creator: Mary McAboy started making these dolls in 1913 and got a patent for them in 1914.
• Appearance: They were made to look like Native American people and were sold to tourists at trading posts in the western United States.
• Materials: Early dolls had heads made from dried apples! Their bodies were made of wood and stuffed with leaves, straw, twigs, or grass inside a cloth bag. Later dolls were made from a material called composition and had mohair wigs. Even later versions were made of plastic and had plastic brown shoes.
• Clothing: Skookum dolls always wore "Indian style" blankets. Some had jewelry like beaded necklaces or earrings, and some even had feathered headdresses.
• Sizes: They came in many sizes, from tiny babies in cradle boards to huge, human-sized dolls used for store displays. The bigger the doll, the more valuable it usually is. Most common sizes were about 7 to 12 inches tall.
• Unique Features: Most Skookum dolls look to the right. They don't have arms; their blankets are wrapped around them to suggest arms. They never have gray hair, meaning they don't represent elders. Real Skookum dolls usually have "Skookum" stamped on their brown plastic shoes or a tag on their foot for older versions.

Other Ways Skookum Is Used

The word "Skookum" appears in many place names across the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes, a shorter version, "Skook," is used in people's nicknames. For example, there's Mount Skook Davidson and Mount Skook Jim in British Columbia.

One of the most famous people with this nickname was Skookum Jim. He was one of the people who first discovered gold in the Klondike goldfields in the Yukon. "Skookum" was also the name of a large logging train built in 1909.

See Also

• Skookumchuck
• List of Chinook Jargon place names (places with "Skookum" in their names)