Monthly Archive: July, 2019

Spokane Romance in New Novel: A pair of discoveries!

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A Spokane newspaper article indirectly leads us to two new discoveries about Chinuk Wawa!

Took big city by storm

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Just a morsel of Chinook Jargon here…

Indian rites over body of old chief

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A lot of confusion in a small paragraph about the Puyallup tribe…

Shoalwater Bay stories, Part 1

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Here is a traditional, and I expect true, story about the origin of southwest Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula and Shoalwater Bay. 

1855 Indian war: The Puget Sound Rangers know when they’re being cussed at in Jargon

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I ask you: if you were a freaked-out Settler under armed Indigenous attack, how well would you understand what your enemies were hollering at you in Chinuk Wawa?

1893: A quick study at Spences Bridge…a kid from Ontario?

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Here’s one of the many nice examples of people quickly learning to read Chinuk Pipa back in the day…I challenge you to match their success!

Muck-a-muck potlatch menu

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Subtext: the governor of post-frontier Washington State may have stood out for not not knowing Chinuk Wawa very well.

Robert K. Beecham, the Canadian “Chinook poet” of Everett

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Robert K. Beecham (1838-1920), born in New Brunswick, served in a Wisconsin division in the US Civil War, moved to Everett, Washington in 1894 — which is a telling detail.

The importance of women in printing Kamloops Wawa

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All I can add to this superb and important note about Chinuk Pipa‘s reliance on female printers is that Angele Edward was Hyacinth Sisyésq’t’s daughter-in-law.

1859: Capture and destruction of the brig Swiss Boy

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David K. Welden or Walden, “master” of the American brig Swiss Boy, took to newsprint to publicize the loss of his ship in the Ditidaht area of Vancouver Island.