Kamloops + others residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 4)
Dated May 14, 1893, Kamloops Wawa #78 carries some more early residential-school news on page 79…
And it’s all in Chinuk Wawa, because that was the most efficient way to spread news through Native communities in southern BC at the time.
Two major takeaways today —
#1 – Folks were worried from the start about the possibility of their kids dying while away at school.
#2 – Chinuk pipa (the Chinook writing that you see in the image here) was taught in the Kamloops school’s first years.
<Industrial School Kamloops.>
Alta nsaika halak ukuk skul kopa tilikom kopa Kamlups
‘Now we’ve opened this school for (Native) people at Kamloops.’
Kansih tilikom aiak mash klaska tanas kopa ukuk
‘Several people immediately sent their children to this’
skul. Iht liplit iaka tlus nanish ukuk skul pi tlun
‘school. One priest takes care of this school and three’
sistirs kanamokst, pi hlwima tilikom mitlait klaska tanas
‘nuns altogether, but some other people have (keep) their children’
pi klaska ilo tiki mash klaska tanas kopa ukuk skul.
‘and they don’t want to send their children to this school.’
Klaska kwash pus klaska tanas mitlait saia: Klaska kwash
‘They’re afraid for their children to be far away: They’re afraid’
pus klaska tanas tlap sik tomtom, pi shako sik, pi shako
‘for their children to get sad, and get sick, and to’
mimlus kopa skul, kakwa klaska shako lost ayu. Ilo klaska
‘die at the school, so, many have been lost. They don’t’
mitlait man tomtom ukuk tilikom. Klaska mitlait tanas man
‘have manly hearts, these people. They have boyish’
tomtom: Ilo klaska nanish klaska ayu lost kopa ukuk.
‘hearts: They don’t see they’re losing a lot from this.’
Wik kata iaka tomtom taii Andri kopa SShB. Iaka aias
‘That’s not how Chief Andrew at St John the Baptist [“North Thompson”] feels. He’
tiki iaka tanas, pi iaka tiki iaka tanas mitlait kanamokst iaka
‘loves his child, and he wants his child staying with him,’
pi ilip iaka tiki pus iaka tanas shako drit tlus, pi shako
‘but even more he wants for his child to really improve, and to’
ayu komtaks kopa ST iaka wawa. Kakwa iaka aiak mash iaka tanas
‘learn a lot about God’s word. So, right away he sent his child’
kopa skul. Iaka wawa: ST patlash ukuk tanas kopa naika.
‘to the school. He said: “God gave this child to me… ‘
Pus ST tiki iaka mimlus kopa skul, tlus kakwa. Pus ilo
‘If God wants her dying at school, so be it. If… ‘
iaka klatwa kopa skul pi iaka mimlus wiht kopa naika haws
‘she doesn’t go to school and she dies still at my house… ‘
pus kata iaka tomtom ST. Wik naika sik tomtom. Kakwa
‘then how will God feel? I’m not sad.” This is why’
iaka tanas ukuk man alta mitlait kopa skul: Pi iaka drit
‘this man’s child is now at the school: And she doing really’
tlus ukuk tanas klushmin. Iaka chi kopit iskom ⊕. Iaka
‘well, this girl. She has just finished taking communion. She’
komtaks kanawi Shinuk pipa. Iaka komtaks kanawi styuil, kakwa
‘understands everything (in) Chinook writing. She know all the prayers, like’
shanti man. Kanawi styuil iaka nanish kopa Shinuk pipa pi iaka
‘a deacon. All the prayers, she reads them in Chinook writing and she’
drit aiak wawa kanawi kopa iaka labush.
‘instantly says them all aloud.’
Hey Dave, in my reading of this article I always thought that Le Jeune mixed up “kata” and “kakwa” a couple times in the last paragraph there. Specifically:
“Wik kata iaka tomtom taii Andri kopa SShB.”
and
“pus kata iaka tomtom ST. Wik naika sik tomtom.”
I think these make more sense to read as “kakwa”. “kakwa (naika) tomtom” is the established expression for what they are clearly trying to express.
I can see where you’re coming from on the second one – if he did mean kata, taii andri probably left out the punctuation (question mark) in the original letter and Le Jeune didn’t add one when editing, but still I think they make more sense read as “kakwa” and not a question. It makes much more sense to say:
“Chief Andrei at Chu Chua doesn’t agree” (i.e. “chief Andrei of Chu Chua’s heart isn’t so”)
and
“If god’s heart is so, I am not upset.”
Doesn’t it? I think Le Jeune’s punctuation is confusing thing slightly there.
Also, reading how the first one is now I would be inclined to read:
“Chief Andrei’s heart can’t be for Chu Chua”
I know they don’t look that similar in CP, but they do sound similar so perhaps Le Jeune absent mindedly swapped kata and kakwa while writing.
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“Wik kata iaka tomtom taii Andri” ~ literally ~ ‘Chief Andrew can’t think it’.
I have to agree, Alex, this one sounded odd. In fact my acquaintance with Le Jeune’s Chinuk Wawa habits makes me “hear” him “actually” saying —
“Wik kata KAKWA iaka tomtom taii Andri” ~ ‘Chief Andrew can’t think/feel THAT WAY’.
As you know, there are a number of other instances where Le Jeune absent-mindedly leaves out a word in his presumably speedy writing. (He was always warning about the shorthand “speed craze”!) Many of those left-out words are ones that happen to be similar to the one he’d just written. In this case, KATA & KAKWA sound and look fairly alike, and their meanings are even related.
I have an impression that these lapses are even more common where Le Jeune is transcribing someone’s letter for publication. I once presented a research paper demonstrating that L.J. actively edited Native people’s writing in various ways…and that may have gotten the better of him this time.
Good catch!
That “…pus kata iaka tomtom ST…” is more ambiguous, though. Keeping in mind that both Native people’s & Le Jeune’s punctuation in Chinuk Pipa was chaotic, and that “pus kata” was a synonym for “kata” for many BC speakers, I feel a conservative reading is the one I give above, ‘How will God feel?’
Dave
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While kakwa might indeed work in these contexts, I think kata (qʰata) works fine too. “wek kata pus” is used for ‘can’t, no way to’ in earlier Catholic Chinuk corpus sources. For my own part, I am fine with how Dave translates here.
Children falling sick and dying at school was a big concern of parents also at the (Catholic-run and staffed) government boarding school founded at Grand Ronde Res in 1874. A pupil’s first-person account of life at that school makes up a good part of the content of “My Life, by Louis Kenoyer: Reminiscences of a Grand Ronde Reservation Childhood” (Oregon State Univ Press, 2017), an autobiographical narrative presented (by yours truly and Jedd Schrock) in bilingual Kalapuyan-English format. On pp 242-260 there, Kenoyer tells of falling ill at the school, the agency physician’s ineffectual attempt to treat him, his release back home (presumably to die there; note: the school was on the reservation, only a mile from Kenoyer’s family home), followed by his successful cure at the hands (literally) of a traditional healer.
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hayu masi Dave for sharing this important historical document, pi hayu masi Alex, Henry for the discussion. I plan to use this in my work on the coast.
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