Kamloops + other residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 7: the use of catechisms)
The Chinuk Wawa newspaper was used in early residential-school classrooms…
In particular, use was made of its serial installments of a Catholic catechism, in both Chinook and English.
We’re told many other readers approved of this bilingual presentation!
Apparently it helped people learn English via Chinook…
…which is pretty much the story of Kamloops Wawa‘s & Chinuk Pipa‘s life…
…leading to their demise within one generation!
Wiht ukuk katikism sitkom Chinuk pi sitkom
‘Also this catechism that’s half in Chinook and half’Inglish: Ukuk tanas mitlait kopa skul kopa Sint Mari[,] kopa
‘English: Those children staying at the schools at Saint Mary’s, at’Kamlups, kopa Wiams Lik, ItS., nanich ukuk katikism
‘Kamloops, at Williams Lake, etc., read this catechism’kopa Inglish, klaska aiak chako komtaks ukuk katikism
‘in English, they soon learn that catechism’pi ukuk iht katikism iaka cim kopa Chinuk, drit kakwa
‘and this other catechism that’s written in Chinook, just as’iaka siisim: alki iaka klatwa ukuk katikism kopa
‘it’s told: some day this catechism will go (out) in’kanawi msaika lalang.
‘all of you folks’ (Indigenous) languages.’Tanas ayu tilikom nanich ukuk katikism kopa
‘Some folks see this catechism in’Chinuk pi kopa Inglish kanamokst; klaska wawa: “Drit aias
‘Chinook and in English along with it; they say: It’s really very’tlus ukuk, iaka drit tlus ukuk pus man tiki chako
‘nice, this is, it’s excellent when a person wants to’komtaks kilapai Chinuk wawa kopa Inglish wawa.”
‘learn to translate Chinook Jargon (back and forth) with the English language.’
— Kamloops Wawa, May 1895 (#128), page 69
Bonus fact:
It’s true, due to the translation work of numerous Indigenous people, catechisms soon got published in 8 Salish languages of British Columbia, all in Chinuk Pipa alphabet!
They were in ʔayʔajuθəm, sháshíshálhem, skwxwú7mesh sníchim, stó:lō, st’át’imcets, nɬeʔkepmxcín, secwepemctsín, and nsilxcən.
Those languages are otherwise known as Sliammon, Sechelt, Squamish, and Upriver Halkomelem (all Coast Salish); and Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap, and Okanagan-Colville (all Interior Salish).
They were published together with the English (in regular & Chinuk Pipa versions) and Chinuk Wawa catechisms in 1896 as the “Polyglott Manual“. (Misspelled on the book cover.) Click that link to look through it!
