1895, Spokane: Chinese/Irish immigrant Ah Yehn/McGinty talks Chinook and English
Maybe he immigrated to Ireland first.
A Chinese person, even immigrating in the late frontier period (about 1879), would have still routinely learned Chinuk Wawa.
This has everything to do with the sorts of workplaces then available to folks from — I’m assuming from this man’s name — southeast China in the USA.
You’d likely find work outside of the few sizeable towns, in rural places, in occupations such as railroad building or gold mining.
And “out in the sticks” you’d have considerable contact with Native people. In the Pacific Northwest, a knowledge of Chinook Jargon came in handy there.
Thus, in the post-frontier period (after 1890), we have Ah Yehn from China and/or Ireland, an accomplished multilingual:
Image credit: Amazon
United States Commissioner Kenyon
last evening ordered Ah Yehn and Ah
Sing deported, as they were found in the
United States without the proper cer-
tificates of registration. Both the China-
men were arrested by Deputy Marshal
M. J. Maloney at Northport a few days
ago and sent down here for trial. Mr.
Maloney came in on the train last night
and the matter came up before Commis-
sioner Ke[n]yon in the evening. Ah Yehn,
who speaks English quite well, and also
speaks Chinook, says he came to this
country sixteen years ago, and insists
that he is not a Chinaman, but an Irish-
man, and that his name is McGinty,
The other Chinaman says he has been in
this country about four years, but that
he knew nothing about registering. Their
explanations were not considered suffi-
cient, and they were accordingly ordered
deported. — Spokane Review.
— from the Eureka (CA) Weekly Sentinel of October 19, 1894, page 2, column 4
