1915: One finds it funny to call them Savages

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A bit of humor in objecting to Indigenous people being called bad names…

Image credit: Google Play

You may have read “So 2 Chiefs and a Priest Go to Europe…” on my website.

Here’s a later issue of the same Kamloops Wawa newspaper telling us more about that trip.

(My French-speaking readers should tell me what the unclear words are!)

On trouve drôle d’appeler ce monde-ci des “sauvages”. Ma vieille tante “Marie Anne Pip” s’attendait à voir voici il y a 11 ans, des sauvages armés d’arc et de flèches avec des _____ _____ etc. Aussi quand elle nous a vu arriver, avec Louis et Celestin habillés à l’européenne, comme du reste tout notre monde s’habille par ici, elle n’a pu s’empêcher de dire: — Mais ça ____ des messieurs, ce n’est pas des sauvages.

It seems funny to call these people “savages”. My old aunt “Marie-Anne Pip”, 11 years ago now, expected to see savages armed with bows and arrows, ____, etc. So when she saw us arrive [in France], with [Chiefs] Louis [of Kamloops] and Celestin [Johnny Chilihitza of Douglas Lake] dressed in European style, as everyone else dresses around here, she couldn’t help saying, “But these are gentlemen, not savages!”

— Kamloops Wawa #252 (July 1915), page 19

ikta mayka chaku-kəmtəks?
Ikta maika chako-kumtuks?
What have you learned?
And can you say it in Jargon?

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