Dictionary of the American West

K

combinations: To jump a (mining) claim means to take it illegally, by force or skullduggery. One who does so is a claim-jumper, and claim jumping is sometimes referred to euphemistically as relocating a claim. When the dealer cuts the cards for his own advantage, he’s said to jump the cut. To jump over the broomstick is to get married . To jump up a lot of dust means to come or go (on a horse) in a hurry. juniper (1) Americans everywhere use this word to mean various conifers; in the West, its berries are used occasionally for seasonings. (The Western juniper tree is generally called a cedar, incorrectly.) (2) The distinctly Western meaning of juniper is a greener or pilgrim, an innocent in the West. Thus the narrator in Owen Wister’s “A Pilgrim at Gila” rattles up to a water stop in a stage and says, “I jumped out to see the man Mr. Mowry warned me was not an inexperienced juniper.” Justins Cowboy boots. The name comes from a fine bootmaker, Joseph Justin, whose firm started on the Red River and is now in Fort Worth, Texas. Some people say Justin is to boots what Stetson is to hats and Levis is to jeans. K kabluna In the Yukon, historically, a white person. From the Eskimo language, in which it literally means “person with big eyebrows.” kachina (kuh-CHEE-nuh) In the religion of the Hopis and other Pueblo peoples, a spirit, a demi-god; a masked dancer or a doll representing these spirits. Youths of both sexes are initiated into kachina societies, become dancers, and participate in the principal ceremonies. The kachinas, said to winter in the San Francisco Peaks southwest of the Hopi Reservation near Flagstaff, Arizona, appear at various times of the year and in many shapes. Kachina dolls, made of wood, feathers, and so on and brightly painted, were originally made for Hopi children but now are often made for Anglo collectors . Some Hopi carvers have made names for themselves as kachina artists. Spelled variously (especially katcina), it comes from the Tewa language. kalador In Alaska, an entry chamber of a house for taking off heavy boots, parkas, and other gear. kamik In British Columbia and the Yukon, a hide boot, like a mukluk. kangaroo rat A rodent of the Western deserts (genus Dipodomys). It survives without drinking any water, relying on the water that is a by-product of food metabolism and by water-conserving behavior (limiting activity to night, jump 206  temporary periods of hibernation, concentrated urine, etc.). Kansas western combinations: Kansas banana (the pawpaw), Kansas brick (a square of prairie sod used to build a soddy, also called a Nebraska brick), Kansas sheep dip (both a treatment for scab in sheep and, later, one of the many cowboy terms for whiskey—for others, see firewater), Kansas stable (a stable built of forked posts and poles and covered with sod and brush), Kansas zephyr (a devil of a wind), Kansas City fish (salt pork; sowbelly). kauk Walrus skin, with blubber, boiled and eaten. Used in Alaska and the Yukon. kayak In Alaska, a completely enclosed boat of hide or canvas stretched over a light frame, made for one, two, or three paddlers, who each use a double paddle. When there are multiple paddlers , often called a baidarka. Now a recreational craft used all over the United States. kazunoko In Alaska, herring roe in the ovarian membrane, a delicacy to the Japanese, gaining popularity on the American West Coast. keelboat During the quarter century up to 1820, the keelboat was the primary mode of transportation for people and supplies from Pittsburgh west. Named for its heavy timber keel (the vessel was also called simply a keel). Fifty to eighty feet long, pointed at both ends, and light of draft, the keelboat was distinguished from the broadhorn or flatboat in that it could go upstream. The keelboat moved slowly by a combination of sailing, poling, bushwhacking (pulling on bushes and trees), and towing by a rope that might be 1,000 feet long (cordelling). It could haul up to 300 barrels of freight. A trip to, say, St. Louis, was easy down the Ohio River and hellish going up the Mississippi. The keelboat required a tough, strong bunch of men to crew it, usually six to ten per boat, plus a captain who acted as steersman. One such fellow, Mike Fink, became legendary as the half-horse, half-alligator king of the...