1895: The word “Siwash”
One of the many newspaper pieces in the era speculating on the origin of this word that was well-known to PNW English speakers.
Another mistake: Dior’s “Sauvage” ad campaign (image credit: City News Calgary)
The following letter to a newspaper editor comes from a source worth listening to for opinions about Pacific NW languages: Marcus Whitman Walker (1842-1903), the son of early missionary to the Spokane Salish people, Elkanah Walker.
MW Walker grew up hearing and using Indigenous languages; however, the following is biased too heavily in favor of his acquaintance with tribes in the area of the The Dalles, Oregon, who did not in fact play a large role in forming the early Chinook Jargon.
He also mistakenly supposes Wasco (Kiksht Upper Chinookan) and Klickitat (NW Sahaptin) are related to each other.
Nonetheless, I think you’re going to find the following fascinating, as a fortunate find of one person describing his exposure to Native speech:
The Word “Siwash.”
Axford [Wasco County, Oregon], April 26, 1895.
To The Editor: In the weekly issue of
your paper of April 25 you say in reply
to H. C. S. that the word “siwash” is de-
rived from the [Métis] French “sauvage.” I know
this is the popular theory, which I first
heard more than thirty years ago, and
which is accepted by Rev. M[yron]. Eells, a
very good authority generally, but it is
entirely wrong. The word is pure Indian
and the one used by the Wasco Indians,
and probably by the Klickitats, both of
which tribes originally ranged along the
Columbia river from the Cascades to The
Dalles, and whose languages are nearly
identical, to designate a human as distin-
guished from an animal or other creature.
Probably “people” is the nearest word
in English for it. After the coming of
the whites among them they adopted the [Chinuk Wawa]
names “Bostons,” “King George,” “Pas-
sieuks” (French), etc., retaining the word
“siwash” for application exclusively to
Indians. While undoubtedly the Chinook
jargon was more or less of a growth, yet
I have been told by the Wasco Indians
that the language was perfected and first
written down by the Catholic priests at
The Dalles, and they appear to have
drawn quite freely from the Wasco lan-
guage in doing so. The numerals are
slightly changed, but easily recognisable,
as for instance, ihte, wohtix, clouix,
locketz, [these seem to be misremembered, and/or misread by the editor] etc., and many other words ap-
pear, some unchanged, others slightly, but
as in the case of the numerals, easily rec-
ognized. Such as mika [sic], mika, meshika[,]
alhkie. kwanisum and probably 10 per
cent. of the common words of the lan-
guage are of that derivation. To what ex-
tent other Indian languages have contri-
buted I, of course, have no knowledge,
but it seems reasonable to suppose that
many other native words were used. The
Chinook shows plainly enough the use of
French that was made, and the error un-
der consideration was natural enough, but
it shows plainly, as well, that speculation
in philology may be as wide of the mark
as some other forms of higher criticism,
so-called, which are based on just such
premises. Yours respectfully,MARCUS WHITMAN WALKER.
— from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of May 2, 1895, page 4, column 4
