Monthly Archive: March, 2013

Racially insensitive verb

I thought of titling this post following my general habit: using the word under discussion.  But in the interests both of warning and enticing potential readers, I went for something more general.  This… Continue reading

Bull teams and steam engines

(Edited 06/08/2016, to correct the year from 1897 to 1896.) This is the colophon of the Kamloops Wawa  newspaper, from the first issue that ran it.  That’d be November 1897, top of page 1.… Continue reading

A trip to Metaline

To paraphrase Daniel Johnston, have you been to Metaline?  If you had visited that mining camp on the BC border in Washington’s first year of statehood, you might have found Chinook Jargon useful.… Continue reading

Roy I. Rochon’s “The Yakama guide who led the first Rainier ascent”

Roy I. Rochon Wilson has a neat historical piece in Centralia, WA’s The Chronicle (“Serving the greater Lewis County , Wash., area since 1889”) Friday, March 8th, 2013.  The biographical note on the author tells… Continue reading

Idle No More

Idle No More! A flash mob singing a Chinook Jargon song at Park Royal shopping centre, West Vancouver, BC. Commenters there (YouTube) have explained the lyrics.

The Grand Tyhee!

In honor and memory of my dad, Bob Robertson, who died a few days ago: While an Alaska State Trooper in the 1960s, Dad wrote a history of law enforcement from territorial days… Continue reading

Sharon Seal guest blogs again: Big John Kitsap & See Oh See Oh

Reader Sharon Seal has contributed more great Chinook Jargon material to share with you all.  These are newspaper articles from Kittitas County, WA.  (Non-Washingtonians: it’s pronounced KITT-ih-tass.) 1) “Big John Kitsap, Kittitas Indian,… Continue reading

Twin Wah fights extradition from the Okanogan using Chinook Jargon

The Spokane [WA] Review, October 1, 1894, page 3, column 4 has an article about a Chinese immigrant in federal custody fighting extradition: Chinaman talks Chinook  Veteran Placer Miner a Prisoner of the… Continue reading

Bella Coola Courier, May 31, 1913

The Bella Coola [BC] Courier, May 31, 1913: This newspaper issue carries a vivid full-front-page narrative of Empire Day celebrations at the Indian reserve in Bella Coola, British Columbia.  Lots of interesting 100-year-old… Continue reading