1882, Grand Ronde area: Lo under instruction
Yes, it’s a racist headline.
This article is of value to us, though.
It tells of a Grand Ronde Reservation man, David Davis, testifying by necessity or choice, or both, in a late frontier era Settler court, in Chinuk Wawa.
For us science-minded linguists, this is some independent confirmation that the Jargon was still a major language at G.R. in 1882.
I haven’t yet learned much about him. The reason cited for his arrest — coming too quickly in response to a legal summons! — strikes me as ridiculous.
“Mr. F. Clarno” seems likely to be Francis “Frank” Clarno (1852-1919).
Cuitan = kʰíyutən = ‘horse’. Of course you’ll notice how Mr. Davis, being a Native, is not only insulted with the label “Lo”, but gets his horse labeled “a fiery untamed cuitan“. Oy. “Fiery, untamed” was a stock phrase for horses considered of less than prime value at that time.
“Lo” UNDER INSTRUCTION .- David Davis,
the Indian arrested for unmercifully spurring
his fiery untamed cuitan while hastening from
his home, on Grand Ronde Reservation, to
this city in obedience to a subp[o]ena served on
him by One Arm Brown, Deputy U. S. Mar-
shal, ordering him to appear forthwith as an
evidence in the U. S. court, came up for trial
in the police court yesterday. The testi-
mony was plain and conclusive that the horse
had been abused and the prisoner, through
the aid of Mr. F. Clarno, gave his statement
of the affair in classic Chinook. The Judge sen-
tenced him to 20 days in jail, remarking that
probably the early training of David had been
sadly neglected and that he had never been
subject to the ameliorating influence of
humane societies and was therefore excusable
to a certain extent, but under the idea that
the present was a good time to instruct him,
and that a slight punishment might have a
good effect on his future life, he gave him the
dose above mentioned.
— from the Salem (OR) Willamette Farmer of January 20, 1882, page 2, column 2
