Pigeon Indian, or, how to talk to the Chinese
From an 1887 article titled “Siwash potlatches”, a novel theory of why Chinese immigrants speak Chinook Jargon:
It was while I was in Ta-
coma, by the way, that a very gifted
and observant little lady of New Eng-
land descent, who has had much to do
with the Chinese, has house servants
and peddlers, told me that the lan-
guage in which the best conversational
progress can be made with a Chinaman
is the “Chinook,” or pigeon Indian,
with which the traders talk to the In-
dians. They understand the Indian
words far better than the English ones.
To say the least, these are very queer
coincidences. Here we find that the
Indians nearest to China look like
Chinese, use the same boats the
Chinese use, and talk a language which
the Chinaman faintly understands.
(The Ohio Democrat (Logan, Ohio), December 31, 1887.)
From Facebook:
“Leland Bryant Ross commented on your post in Chinook Jargon.
谢谢你，19世纪民间人类学！的确如此！;-) “
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Also from Facebook:
“Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Great! I note that the newspaper was in Ohio – few people in Ohio had any contact with Chinook or the Chinese. (I am surprised that the reporter did not comment on the resemblance of “Chinook” with “Chinese” “
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And also from Facebook–I wrote:
“Bonjour Marie-Lucie! (Or does one say “allo” online as on the phone?) Thanks for commenting on this. The writer must have been a traveling correspondent, or else the article was reprinted from one of the newspaper’s “exchanges” as I discussed a couple of blog posts ago. And yes, there’s a noticeable if not robust verbal connection that people made, in written English anyhow, in the 19th century between Chinook and Chinese. I was reading one yesterday in a newspaper article that listed various races that might potentially–and absurdly in the author’s opinion–receive voting suffrage in the USA. Beyond whites and blacks, the author pondered what would happen if Chinese and Chinooks and [sic] Indians got the vote. Also, I might be able to dig up a piece from my files, a poem in an old Alaskan newspaper called “Chinook and Chinee: An Alaskan Idyll”. At all events, I like this “Pigeon Indian” article as a representative of a theory that had very real currency for a long time, that North American Indians have a particularly close ancestral affiliation with the Chinese people.”
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The word Chinook basically means Chin(real name of China)Ook(also or too),meaning China Too.
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Hi Donna, this is a new and intriguing analysis to me. Can you point me to a reference source?
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Leland’s remark translates as, “Thank you, 19th century folk anthropology! Indeed!” 🙂
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