1848, OR: at Celeetse (Siletz) Bay
A letter from Salem, in “Champoeg County”, reports on “an exploring tour” by some recently arrived Settlers in Oregon Territory.
Hm, “exploring tour” and Chinook Jargon have gone hand-in-hand before!
Siletz Bay (image credit: Trip Advisor)
Let’s have a look at this item signed just “Albert”, from the Oregon City (Oregon Territory) Oregon Spectator of September 7, 1848 (!!), page 1, columns 1-3.
The 4 travelers took the “Yamhill path” from the Willamette Valley area, over the mountains to the coast. Here’s the itinerary, using improvised spellings for both Chinuk Wawa & newly encountered Indigenous names:
Pushing our way along the
edge of the Big Pond to the Celeetse Bay —
swimming our horses, ourselves being con-
veyed in a canoe — still marching our on-
ward way copa ‘tshuck, until we found
ourselves forty or fifty miles south, on the
Yac-quin-na, Ac-quin-na, or Ac-coon Bay;
thence northeast to the Celeetse river-up
this stream, east, to the head waters of
Mary’s, Yac-quin-na, and the Celeetse riv-
ers; from thence, east by north, to King’s
valley, on the Luc-a-i-mute or Luc-a-mute.
Copa ‘tshuck = kʰupa chə́qw = ‘on/along the water’.
It’s not long till the four Settlers encounter Jargon-speaking Native people of Northwest Oregon:
Leaving our horses, two of us went
on foot to an Indian lodge, and made some
inquiries, but obtained no satisfactory in-
formation. Retracing our steps, we were
driven back by the tide-water, and obli-
ged to go round the neck, and even there
the water was quite deep. Perceiving sev-
eral Indians following us, we stopped —
having come up, we conversed with them,
(for two of them understood the jargon.)
After a while, the travelers kill a seal:
Skinning the
animal, the Indians participating, we pre-
pared some for supper; but, alas! we
could not eat it. At this the Indians were
surprised, saying hias close muck-a-muck;
hiu gleece mid-light. We responded, wake
close muck-a-muck.
Hias close muck-a-muck = hayas-łúsh mə́kʰmək = ‘very good food’.
Hiu gleece mid-light = háyú klís míłayt = ‘there’s lots of fat there (in it)’.
wake close muck-a-muck = wík łúsh mə́kʰmək = ‘it’s not good food’.
So, some Native people were already able to speak Chinook Jargon in the Siletz area quite early in the era of “frontier” settlement.
This isn’t a surprise. Tribal people of the broad region around the mouth of the Columbia River had been trading with, and marrying, fur trade employees for 37 years.
