Kamloops + other residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 12: Miss Lizette Andre; learning English through Chinuk Pipa; Colorado + the Jargon)
“The Industrial School”, you understand, was the first of the names of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Miss Lizette Andre, i.e. the daughter of a man called Andre(w)(s), is one of many Native people proving that folks often learned English in the form of BC’s phonetic-ish Chinuk Pipa alphabet.
This girl had a penpal, surely a White and English-speaking female, in Colorado, USA:
Children, even young ones,
learn to read the Wawa Short-
hand a hundred times quicker
than longhand, and soon attain
reporting speed.Miss Lizette Andre at the In-
dustrial School, Kamloops, cor-
responds in Shorthand with a
young lady in Denver, Colorado.
A few other young Indians in the
country have written to and re-
ceived letters from shorthand
pupils thousands of miles away
in the States. Steady corres-
pondence is the best means of
learning to read and write it
fluently and correctly.
— from “Kamloops Wawa” #148 (January 1897), page [3]
Another issue of “K.W.”, #140 of May 1896, tells us some background on how these girls’ connection came about — It may have been at the suggestion of a Colorado bishop:
Iht taii lisivik kopa saia tawn iaka nim Dinvir
‘A major bishop in a distant town, Denver’
ukuk tawn, kopa Koloriido* ilihi; ukuk lisivik
‘is the name of that town, it’s in “Coloraydo” land; that bishop’iaka nim bishop Matz, iaka chako komtaks Chinuk pipa iaka
‘is called bishop [Nicholas C.] Matz, he’s learning Chinook Writing’s’tzim alta, iaka drit aias tlus tomtom kopa ukuk
‘letters now, he’s really enthused about this’nsaika chort hand, pi iaka iskom tlun tatilam Kamlups
‘shorthand of ours, and he’s taking 30 “Kamloops’Wawa pipa pus mamuk komtaks ukuk short hand kopa kanawi
‘Wawa” papers (subscriptions) to teach this shorthand to all of’tanas mitlait kopa skul kopa Dinvir tawn. Iht sistir
‘the kids who are at the school in Denver. One sister’iaka nim sistir Miri Karlos* kopa Dinvir skul drit aias tlus
‘named Sister Mary Carlos* at the Denver school is really quite en-‘tomtom kopa ukuk short hand tzim. <X> Chi alta Bitzi Shosif
‘thused about this shorthand writing. Just now, Betsy Joseph’pi Alis Laru, Andryu Shul ShKH iaka kluchmin, klaska
‘and Alice Larue, the wife of Andrew Jules of Shhkalktmah [Shuswap Lake],’mash aias tlus wawa kopa sistir Miri Karlos*.
‘have sent very nice words to Sister Mary Carlos*.’
—
For more connections between Colorado and Chinuk Wawa, explore my website!
I also seem to recall the MAC in Spokane, WA (Museum of American Cultures) having in its archive an old letter claiming folks were talking “Chinook” in Denver in the 1890’s. I’ll have to go chase that one down again!
