Oxford lexicon updated finally

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One of the largest and most respected dictionary publishers in the world will be changing "Nootka" to "Nuu-chah-nulth" this year, almost 30 years after the name was officially changed.

In 1973, the West Coast District Council of Indian Chiefs voted unanimously to officially change the term Nootka as it applied to the first peoples of the west coast of Vancouver Island to Nuu-chah-nulth, which means "between the mountains and the sea."

According to Nuu-chah-nulth Elders, when Captain James Cook's ship Resolution approached the village of Yuquot in 1778, he thought the Mowachaht people's shouted instruction "nuut'ka," (meaning to "go around" a jagged reef) was their name.

Since 1973, Nuu-chah-nulth has been used as a term of confederacy among the Native people from Brook Peninsula south to Port Renfrew who share a similar language and culture. The term Nuu-chah-nulth has appeared in Canadian dictionaries the past few years, but this marks the first time the term will be used in the international Oxford dictionary, published in London, England.