Kamloops Wawa pictures, part 8: Sechelt village, BC
From a coastal town where Chinuk Pipa writing was popular…
Sechelt, British Columbia is a Salish village where this mid-1890s photo was taken.
The Chinook Jargon newspaper introduced this picture:
Mokst tlus piktyur msaika nanich kopa ukuk
‘There are two nice pictures that you folks can see in this’pipa…iht Shishil tilikom
‘newspaper…one is the Sechelt people’s’klaska ilihi pi klaska tawn.
‘place and their town.’
Kamloops Wawa #128 (May 1895), page 70
We’re told more about this place;
Taii Isidor kopa Shishil, chi iaka chako taii
‘Chief Isidore at Sechelt, he’s just become chief’kopa Shishil tilikom, pi iaka mash pipa kopa Kamlups. Iaka
‘to the Sechelt people, and he’s sent a letter to Kamloops. He’aias tiki ukuk Chinuk pipa, kakwa iaka tiki iskom kanawi
‘loves this Chinook writing, so he wants to get his hands on every-‘ikta nsaika cim kopa ukuk Chinuk pipa. Tlun buk iaka tlap
‘thing we write in this Chinook writing. Three books he’s received’kanawi ikta iaka cim kopa Chinuk pipa, kopa ilip nsaika
‘(having) everything that’s written in Chinook writing, from the first we’mamuk pi ko kopa ukuk son, iaka cim kopa ukuk tlun buk.
‘made and up to today, it’s written in these three books.’
A tiny note — the use of iaka for ‘it’ here shows the writer’s (JMR Le Jeune’s) French “accent”. We’d normally use the “silent IT” pronoun there.
