An item from Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum!
In the Facebook “Chinook Jargon” group, the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum of North Bend, WA, shared a question:
We have this object in our collection that is described in the card catalog as a piece of wood with beaver chew marks. It also has a label in Chinook Jargon. It was part of our original collection created by a local school teacher who founded the museum in a classroom before the historical society was formed to take it over during the baby boom in the 1960s. Does the label say something different than the card catalog card?
This item’s handwritten plaque says Ena Mam-mook Delate Ahn-kottie.
I sent a reply — to this effect:
In Grand Ronde’s style of writing, that’s ína mámuk (Ø) dléyt ánqati, meaning ‘a beaver made (it) / did (it) a real long time ago’.
Looks like the label matches the card catalog entry!
