Monthly Archive: July, 2021

1941: Chester Anders Fee, “Oregon’s Historical Esperanto”

Chester Anders Fee (1893-1951) of Pendleton, Oregon, wrote an article titled “Oregon’s Historical Esperanto — the Chinook Jargon” Oregon Historical Quarterly 42(2):176-185, June 1941.

A 3rd Kamloops Indigenous letter in CW from the WW1 front

From Kamloops Wawa #270 (January-April 1917), I present a third Indigenous-written Chinuk Pipa letter from the battlefields of Europe.

1860s: Sign language at Musqueam

Alex Code of PoCo Heritage contributed this item…

Distinguishing “Métis” from “métis” in the Chinook Jargon world

I often tell you that Chinook Jargon is a “Métis” language; is this the same as a “métis” language?

Real info about the infamous Seattle Illahee / Illeah / Mad House / Sawdust Pile

From more than one source, I’d like to present you with some Chinook Jargon-related dirt on the notorious Seattle house of prostitution, the “Illahee“, famed in song and story.

1827-1830: The Fort Langley Journals and BC Métis

We can fairly call these documents an overlooked treasure for understanding BC Chinuk Wawa’s history.

1844: Lee and Frost, “Ten Years in Oregon” — where CW was and wasn’t spoken

Crazily enough, I’ve written here about a different, excellent book having the identical title (and quoting from this one)…

1942: Robie Reid’s fine little CW article

This is a solid lesson on Chinuk Wawa history, and a great chance to learn more about both preachers’ & naughty songsters’ use of the language in BC.

“Gitop” vs. “lei dawn”, etc.

Kluchmin iaka sit dawn, man iaka lei dawn (Image credit: Shutterstock) Here’s a selection from page 46 of the “Chinook Manual” (Kamloops: 1896)…

Kamloops + other residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 1)

Before they were called “residential schools”, they were “Indian industrial schools”…