1847, “Chenook” village: Potlatching tomanawas
A Settler cop’s letter expressing alarm about the state of law and order at Astoria & Chinook, Oregon Territory, is quoted in a newspaper……and it includes Chinook Jargon words of course!
Chief beads from Lower Chinook territory (image credit: BeadCollector.net)
My comments follow this clipping:
ASTORIA, JUNE 18, 1847.
W. H. GRAY ESQ. SIR-I now write a
few lines on the state of the (Union.) We
have a liquor dealer here — George T. Geer,
at Sharkeville — who is doing a land office
business buying salmon. I am told he bought
19 gallons of Spanish brandy from the ship
Brutus, which is very strong and fiery. He
says he “will do just as he pleases in Oregon
and no one shall hinder him, and if any one
comes to disturb him he will give all his
liquor to the Indians to induce them to pro-
tect him and themselves, and he will have
the satisfaction of getting some of the Clat-
sops killed.” A little war has broke out at
Chenook already. It seems that the Che-
nooks have intended to kill some two or three
people, for (as they say “potlatching tomana-
awas,”) giving medicine to the young tyee
girl that lately died, so they gave their vic.
tim as much liquor as he would drink till he
was helpless, and then stabbed him in many
places.Old Ramsey took his daughter and two
more girls up to the ship, last night they sent
a canoe after him. This morning they pur-
sued him down about Shortess’s and shot
three balls into him but did not kill him till
after they brought him to Bulls — an Indian
hut — where he died. Before he was shot,
he offered to give his girl and a slave for his
life, but his girl would not go, alledging [sic] she
would not be a slave and did not think they
would kill her father, so they shot him . —
They still threaten to kill old George and
the old Doctor at old Sally’s. The Indians
are much afraid, they only want [i.e. need] more liquor
and they can soon do the deed.I do not know that we are in any danger
here more than usual, but it is very disa-
greeable. The law is useless in my hands
for want of people to back it. I shall not
pretend to put my life in danger of Indian
malice without a community to back me.Yours, DAVID INGALLS.
P. S. I presume that J. Strang, John
Champ, S. C. Smith, Benj. Wood, and Mr.
McGunigale are witnesses in this case.
— from the Oregon City (Oregon Territory) Oregon Spectator of July 22, 1847, page 4, column 1
“Potlatching tomanaawas” = pá(t)łach t’əmánawas = ‘giving/sending a medicine person’s power’. This sense of t’əmánawas is close to the etymological meaning of this word in older Lower Chehalis Salish, ‘sucking at the middle’ of a patient’s body by a traditional curer. Here the word extends to the frequent accusation that a medicine person, instead of removing a bad spirit, put one into somebody.
“Tyee girl” shows a frequent use of tayi in Jargon, as meaning ‘high-class’. Lewis and Clark’s expedition journals document this use earlier than any other source, referring to certain blue beads as being “tia comshuck“.
