1917, Bella Coola BC: Hiyu chicimen stone
Chinuk Wawa has played an important role the “exploration” of the Pacific Northwest by Settlers.
The “shock quotes” there are meant to show you, as the following article says straight out, that Native people had already explored this region and known it well for many generations.
Thanks to reader Alex Code, we have this clipping from northwestern British Columbia documenting the use of a well-known phrase in Chinook Jargon, chíkʰəmin-stùn.
Tʰat’s literally ‘metal-rock’, the established term for mineral ‘ore’ — primarily gold of course.
Here’s the dope:
A party from here left recently to spend some time in that section [the Eutsuk Lake country] looking up some old claims and also to prospect in the unexplored territory [sic], said by old Indians who have roamed over that country for ages past, that [sic] there is “hiyu chicimen stone” to be found.
— from the Bella Coola (BC) Courier of September 1, 1917, page 1, column 4
So Settlers were being told that there’s ‘lots of ore’ in the area being talked about.
