Pioneer chants weird Indian song in Chinook Jargon
In news of a local version of one of the then-popular statewide annual reunions of “old Oregon” pioneers, we have this teaser:
George W. Dunn is the retiring
president. Rev. P.R. Burnett, Mrs.
Dunn’s father, inroduced an innova-
tion at the gathering by chanting a
weird Indian song in the Chinook
jargon.
The reunion in 1918 will be held
at Jacksonville.
— The Ashland (Oregon) Tidings, September 17, 1917, page 1, column 1 (article headlined “200 Attend Annual Pioneer Reunion“)
For the Chinook Jargon song to qualify as “weird”, I believe it couldn’t be one of the many Christian hymns we still know of in the pidgin. This particular adjective, wiht its sense of “uncanny, spooky”, was typically applied to “real Indian stuff” — manifestations of Indigenous culture that differ markedly from their Euro-American counterparts.
Here, for example, is a “weird Indian song” from Warm Springs. And here is an earlier use of the same phrase in Portland.
So I really wish for a time machine to pop back & check out what Native-inspired song the preacher was belting out!
The Ashland Daily Tidings is still in business. Maybe their files, those of the families mentioned, or a local historical society, can point us to some more information?
re: the image of the “Indian War Dance”– that musical score was written in 1891, but not made popular until its re-release in 1902 by the famed John Philip Sousa Brass Band, the beat of the sound and accompanying “yelping” by the brass band members is easily recognizable as the kind of musical score that was most likely used in the popular Wild West shows and carnivals that circulated at the turn of the twentieth century. How weird is that? Marcia V. Crosby
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