Kamloops Wawa pictures, part 9: Sechelt church

Pictures were a valued commodity in the early days of Chinuk Wawa literacy, in southern British Columbia.

We read very, very often about Indigenous people placing a high value on any pictures that were in the popular Kamloops Wawa newspaper, which flourished 1891-1904.

Here’s an example showing a little bit of the connection in people’s minds between Jargon literacy and getting their hands on piktyur(s) / pʰikcha:

Wiliam Silista kopa Samon Arm iaka mamuk pipa
‘William Celestin at Salmon Arm wrote (a letter)’

kopa Pir Sint Onsh iaka mitlait kopa saia ilihi,
‘to Père Saint Onge who lives in a far-away place,’

❤ 000> mails iaka saia. Pi Pir Sint Onsh iaka drit
‘3,000 miles he’s distant (from here). And Père Saint Onge was really’

yutl tomtom kopa Wiliam pi iaka aiak mamuk kilapai
‘delighted with William and he immediately wrote back’

tsim kopa iaka: iaka patlatsh drit aias tlus wawa
‘to him: he gave really encouraging words’

kopa iaka pi iaka wawa pus klaksta tilikom wixt mamuk
‘to him and he said if any people else write’

pipa kopa iaka iaka drit tlus iaka tomtom pi iaka
‘(letters) to him he’ll be truly happy and he’

alki patlatsh piktyurs kopa klaska.
‘is going to give pictures to them.’

— Kamloops Wawa #30b (June 19, 1892), page 152

It’s in that spirit that I’m running this series of pictures from KW, so you folks can see what the Chinook Jargon-reading Native people of  BC were enjoying so much.

Especially, I’m featuring the pictures and photos that have something directly to do with CJ.

So, here, from page 86 of issue #129 is the Sechelt church — at a Coast Salish village that had a particularly strong relationship with the Catholic missionaries. The Jargon was used very much in this place, in that relationship. I would estimate that about 50% of the many people seen below spoke it, as well as reading & writing it in BC’s Chinuk Pipa alphabet.

Accompanying text in Chinuk Wawa:

…ukuk
‘…this’ 

iht piktyur msaika nanich kopa ukuk pipa, iaka
‘one picture you folks see in this newspaper, it’s’ 

Shishil styuil haws kah ankati ayu tilikom
‘the Sechelt church where once a lot of people’ 

klatwa nanich lisivik pus iaka mamuk blis
‘went to see the bishop (visiting) so he could bless’ 

ukuk styuil haws.
‘that church.’ 

Attitudes have changed in many, many ways since those times, but it remains valuable to see with our own eyes the things that folks were excited and proud about back then.

One reason I say ‘proud’ is that it was incredibly new and rare for Indigenous people to see themselves in photographs, let alone be shown off in a popular publication where others could see them.

Another reason is that quite a number of tribal communities organized themselves, and tended to compete with other villages, to build the nicest possible church using a self-taxation system to collect funds and resources.  They took some pride in their achievements.

qʰata mayka təmtəm?
What do you think?