The Real Story
Dog verses Horse
By Harry Bray (Ce-upes)

When I was in my early teens I had the privilege of spending the odd weekend with Manual Louie. I remember the time Manual invited me to have a sweat house with him and some of his boys. Remembering the hardest part was you had to get in Wolf Cub Creek up to your knees and then pour ice cold water over you. Believe me it was a killer, then when you went in the sweat house, you warmed up pretty quick. That is when Manual would start telling stories about the old times. I asked him what his Indian name was and he told me Skoal – Skaha which means Old Horse in the Okanagan
Language. I asked him why they called it Dog Lake if Skaha was Horse. He said that the map makers talked to an Indian from the Shuswap Band and he told them that Skaha meant Dog in his language. So that is when Manual told me what the real old timers told him before any white man lived in the Valley. They told him that in the long winters when there was lots of snow in the mountain the wild horses would come down and feed on the grass and meadows on the Valley floor between OK Falls and Penticton. He said they always called it Horse Lake (Skaha) the Shuswap Indian was correct in calling Skaha (Dog) but in the Okanagan it means Horse (Skaha). Manual said it’s always been Horse Lake.
Manual Louie was one of the smartest men I have ever had the pleasure of spending part of my early years with.

Lim Limpt Skoal Skaha

P.S. Manual was Chief back in the late 1950’s also is the Great grandfather of Chief Clarence Louie, I know where Clarence gets his smarts from.