1873, OR: William Benedict Carter & Grand Ronde-area Jargon
Newspaper editors used to libel each other freely in the USA.
In the Pacific Northwest states and territories, they used Chinook Jargon to do so.
Morality & leprosy (image credit: Wikipedia)
Here, I suspect W.B. Carter is being accused of soliciting prostitution — the untranslated Chinuk Wawa here echoes popular CW songs about “giving you half a dollar”.
It was untranslated in 1873 because essentially everyone who could read it also talked Chinook, in the Lafayette, Oregon area.
That’s in Yamhill County, near Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.
After this clipping, I’ll give you the translation modern folks might need…
WILLIAM BENEDICT CARTER!
And yet, notwithstanding we
have been so wantonly and malic-
iously assailed and vilified by
this man Head; and notwithstand-
ing his quotation, in last issue, of
abuse of us and slander from the
LAFAYETTE COURIER, a “miserable,
characterless, libelous sheet, pub-
lished by that moral leper, J. H.
Upton, we have no disposition to
retaliate in kind — but in all
the earnestness of our soul, can
pray: “Father, forgive them.”Moral leper is good — coming
from that wreck of poverty and
monument of shame — our good
Bro. W. B. Carter. And then he
talks about praying for us in con-
junction with the editor of the
Democrat! Pray! truly! Is the
man mad? One of his devotional
exploits is a matter of notoriety
about Corvallis, to wit: prostrate
upon his bended knee before a for-
est maiden, and suddenly and as
if by lightning impulse, he
stretched both his hands heaven-
ward, rolling his eyes in that di-
rection so beseechingly as to pro-
voke the ire of the maiden afore-
said, when, disappointed and sur-
prised, she burst forth: “Icta mam-
uck coqua! Nika tum-tum mika
hyas piltun. Klose mika potlach sit-
cum dollar; mika tickie klattawa.[“]
— from the Lafayette (OR) Courier of May 9, 1873, page 2, column 2
- Icta mamuck coqua! = íkta mámuk kákwa? = ‘Why is it like this?’ / ~ ‘Why are you being this way?’
- Nika tum-tum mika hyas piltun. = nayka tə́mtəm mayka hayas-píltən = ‘I think you’re very crazy.’
- Klose mika potlach sitcum dollar = łúsh mayka pá(t)lach sítkum dála = ‘You should give (me) half a dollar.’
- mika tickie klattawa. = mayka tíki łátwa = ‘(And) you need to leave.’
