Hood River Valley, Oregon, 1915 [1852]: quoting remembered Native speech in translation
Here’s a newspaper excerpt from a book, “Reminescences [Reminiscences] of Eastern Oregon“, by Mrs. Elizabeth Laughlin Lord.
It’s a memory of 1852…
Might we be able to back-translate the Indigenous man’s words from the provided English to Chinuk Wawa?
James was very ill for a long time. When he took a turn for the better he was nothing but skin and bones. When he was beginning to sit up, one morning a young Indian came in and sat down by the stove. As his dirt and fish odorous clothes warmed up the air was rather pungent. James fretted and fussed and finally told mother he was going to faint. Mother had felt it to be unwise to antagonize the Indians unnecessarily, but she fianlly [finally] told him to go as her boy was sick. “The man arose, started out, turned a look of scorn on James and said in Chinook, “You snarl and fuss like a sick dog, I will leave you.”
— from “Pioneer Days in Hood River Valley”, in the Hood River (OR) Glacier of December 4, 1913, page 3, column 3
Elsewhere in Mrs. Lord’s book, it’s specified that “Mother” never condescended to learn Chinook Jargon well. The kids of their nuclear family were the interpreters for their parents, when it came to dealing with the still-majority Indigenous population of Oregon.
By the way, the Hood River Valley isn’t very far east in Oregon. It’s maybe 60 miles from Portland, and was on the heavily traveled Oregon Trail.
