Skaha Lake adopted 6 October 1936 on Geological Survey sheet 420A, Kettle River, as labelled on BC map 4N, 1930; not "Dog Lake" as labelled on BC map 1EM, 1915. (file K.1.36)

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Labelled "L. du Chien" on Anderson's 1867 map. Labelled "Du Chien L." on Trutch's 1866 & 1871 maps of British Columbia. Labelled "Dog Lake" on BC map 1EM, 1915. Labelled "Skaha (Dog) Lake" on BC map 4N, Penticton, published in June 1930. Skaha (the Indian word for dog) is the local name for the lake. Name changed to Skaha Lake 6 October 1930 as agreed by BC Department of Lands' deputy minister H. Cathcart, surveyor general F.C. Green, and chief geographer G.G. Aitken. "Dog Lake (not Skaha Lake)" identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer - presumably at press before BC's instruction was conveyed to the Geographic Board. [note: despite the foregoing there is no evidence in BC files that "Dog Lake" had ever been adopted by formal decision of the Geographic Board of Canada - that name was merely labelled on maps for many years.]

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"Labelled "L. du Chien" (Dog Lake) on Anderson Map, 1867; labelled "Du Chien L." on Trutch maps, 1866 and 1871. Origin unknown. Later, Dog became the official name. Changed in 1930 to Skaha "to agree with the local name," states the Chief Geographer. However Okanagan Indians say "skaha" is not their word for dog, but is that of the Shuswaps, and that the local word for dog is chokowapee. (Parham, 40). Another spelling is kaekuwapa. The local meaning of skaha is "horse". (Albert Millar). That is also the meaning in the Nicola dialect. (W. G. Clapperton)." (12th Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1948)

Source: included with note