1912, Siletz, OR: Native minstrel show in Jargon?!

Most unexpectedly, we find Native people in Oregon doing a minstrel show in Chinuk Wawa…

I rationalize all of this by remembering there are “Mardi Gras Indians” 😥
(image credit: Washington Post)

But this is far from the first time we’ve found blackface shows and their music were connected with Chinook Jargon.

Here’s today’s clipping:

THE Indians of Siletz reservation
are giving minstrel shows that rank
well with the efforts of their white
brothers in the rendition of the
negro dialect. Mrs. Mary H. De-
poe, a Cherokee Indian, directs
the music, and Robert Depoe, her
“hubby,” the performance. The In-
dians were assisted by several
reservation officers. The performers
are eqally at home in use of the
Chinook dialect in their masquerad-
ing.

— from the Olympia (WA) Washington Standard of April 5, 1912, page 2, column 4

What do you think?