Kamloops Wawa pictures, part 11: Louis-Napoléon St Onge
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We’re displaying the piktyur(s)/pʰíkcha that were such a popular feature of Kamloops Wawa for its Indigenous readership.
Here’s what the readers of “the Chinook paper” were told about one of the photos it carried:
< Rev. L.N. St Onge > Pi ukuk iht liplit kopa kikuli,
‘And this one (other) priest down below,’klaksta ukuk? Iaka ukuk Pir Sint Onsh, iaka ankati
‘who is that? That’s Pere Saint Onge, who used to’mamuk pipa kopa tanas ayu tilikom kopa ukuk ilihi.
‘write letters to several people in this area.’
— from Kamloops Wawa #125 (February 1895), page 18
Here’s the man himself:
This man also contributed articles in Jargon to the Kamloops Wawa, and wrote a very large & excellent dictionary of Columbia River-area Chinuk Wawa that’s still unpublished. (But I’ve made progress toward that goal!)
We have yet to find any of the CW letters that he wrote to Native people, but there’s always hope.
