1889: “They cumtux Chinook” in this Seattle courtroom
Richard Osborn of Illinois (1845-1905) moved to Seattle in 1881, when use of Chinuk Wawa was still commonplace.
Judge Richard Osborn (image credit: History Link)
In his courtroom, he made use of his Jargon knowledge when dealing with Native people.
The following article adds to our bulging files of data on Chinook Jargon use in Pacific NW courts.
Too bad it’s a bit racist.
And too bad that very little of the CJ spoken in all those court sessions was put into the written record.
See what you think:
THEY CUMTUX CHINOOK.
The Red Man Has No Trouble In
Judge Osborn’s Court.Probate Judge Osborn, who is also a
poet, once saddled and bridled the
Chinook jargen and rode it as his Pe-
gasus. Yesterday he put his knowl-
edge of jargon to a more practical use
than turning it into musical numbers.
From morning to the hour of adjourn-
ment in the evening his little court
room was crowded with Indians, most
of whom disdained to take chairs,
preferring seats upon the carpet. The
matter that brought the aborginees [sic]
into court was the dispute over the
estate of “Alvord Jack,” who is now
a good Indian, being dead.His administrator, Richard Jeffs,
some time ago made application to the
court for an order to sell fifty-three
acres of land adjoi[ni]ng Slaughter, be-
longing to the estate, to pay the debts
and costs of administration.This application was resisted by
Jim App, who claims to be the sole
heir of Alvord Jack. He offers to pay
ail the debts of the estate if the court
finds him heir, and the inquiry is held
principally to inquire who are the
heirs of Alvord Jack. For this pur-
pose a large number of White River
Indians have been summoned as wit-
nesses. Mr. Jeff, who knows all the
Indians, their pedigrees and family
histories, was on the stand yesterday
afternoon. L. T. Turner appeared as
his attorney, and W. R. Andrews, who
can speak the Chinook “wa-wa” id[i]o-
matically, appears for Jim App. The
case will probably be on trial for sev-
eral days.
— from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of August 7, 1889, page 4, column 4
