1872 fictional Montana CW from Grand Ronde (!) : “A Gold-Hunt on the Yellowstone”
I always incline to get excited when a possible find of Chinuk Wawa in Montana pops up…
…And I’m always disappointed 🙂
(Except for that one possible 1862 Bitterroot Valley sighting.)
Today’s another disappointment, sad to say.
I came upon a fun popular article, “A Gold-Hunt on the Yellowstone“, by Edward B[owdoin]. Nealley, on pages 204-212 of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, February 1872.
The following is a photo of the author, a well-heeled Mainer who at one time was US District Attorney for Montana Territory:
(Image credit: Bowdoin College Library Archives Image Gallery)
Pages 207-208 of this piece, which is voiced as an eyewitness memoir, include the following passage:
That’s good reading, and good Jargon, but it’s 100% cribbed right from Granville Stuart’s 1865 book “Montana As It Is“! On those ground alone, it’s disqualified from being evidence of Montana CW use.
Furthermore, as I’ve shown previously, Stuart’s good Jargon is actually Grand Ronde, Oregon style.
What these findings leave us with is a bit of lightweight Chinuk Wawa-related fun. And that’s not entirely something to sneeze at, I figure.
