More about the flood of 1894

I blogged the other day about the great Fraser River flood of 1894; how about some Indigenous people’s eyewitness notes, in Chinuk Wawa?

From Kamloops Wawa #118b, July 1894, page 131:

<More about the
flood.> Kopa ukuk aias
With those high

chok, ilo pipa chako kopa
waters, no letters came from

kah kakwa pus nsaika skukum
anywhere[;] it was like we were im-

haws kopa Kamlups.
prisoned at Kamloops.

Tlun Sondi kopit pi alta shako
Three weeks went by until there got to

tanas tlus oihat pi kansih
be slightly better roads and several

pipa chako. Kopa Cilis iht
letters came. From Chehalis [BC] a

pipa wawa chok klatwa drit
letter said that the water went right

kopa Sondi haws pi kanawi tilikom
up to the church and everyone

mash shus pus klatwa kopa
took off their shoes to go to

Sondi haws.
church.

Kopa Spisom kanawi gardin
At Spuzzum all of the garden

ilihi chako ipsut kopa shok
plots got covered in water

pi ukuk aias brich mitlait
and that big bridge that stands

kopa aias stalo Frisir Rivir
over the big river, the Fraser River,

iaka wik saia kakshit. Nsaika
just about broke apart. We

drit yutl tomtom ilo iaka
are really glad that it didn’t

klatwa ukuk brish.
go, that bridge!