1887, Yakima, WA: Indigenous speeches in Chinook Jargon at the 4th of July
Here’s a nice example of Indigenous leaders making public speeches in Chinuk Wawa during the frontier era…at the Settler celebration par excellence.
Klickitat Chief White Swan (Joe Stwire) (image credit: University of Washington Libraries)
Mr. Reavis [the Indian Agent] was fol-
lowed by several Indian speakers among
whom were Joe Stwire, Inyas and Frank
Menchum, who spoke in the Chinook
dialect, and their addresses were inter-
preted for the benefit of their white
hearers, by Olney [“a well-educated young Indian”], in a very satisfactory
way.
— from “The Other Side: Fourth of July Celebration in the Yakima Country”, in the Seattle (WA) Daily Post-Intelligencer of July 17, 1887, page 4, column 4
I wish we had more details of the speech he gave! If we at least had an English rendering, we could back-translate it…
