WA: Ned Chambreau’s phenomenal 1876-1880 journals
Some great information from an eyewitness of the later frontier era of Washington is to be found in Ned (Edouard) Chambreau’s journals.
Monthly Archive: August, 2025
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1873, OR folklore: Earliest known version of the “sitkum dolla” joke?
I think we may have just antedated the classic Pacific NW “sitkum dollar” joke by 24 years!
Shaky shaking hands?
One of the first expressions I was taught in Chinuk Wawa was from a Southern-dialect speaker: ískam ləmá.
1877, Klamath, OR: Declining to make use of widely spoken Chinuk Wawa
From another US government “Annual Report of the Department of the Interior“, we have this account of missionaries in charge of the Klamath Indian Reservation declining to take advantage of the people’s familiarity… Continue reading
Chinook Jargon in the news: BCLC GameSense brochures
You might enjoy the very informative post recently published by BCLC, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.
Grant Smith 1996 on CJ place names
I read what other scholars have said about Chinook Jargon…
1898, BC: A friend’s letter tells of Baptiste’s dying words
Here’s an Indigenous young man’s Chinuk Pipa letter that got published in the Kamloops Wawa newspaper.
Different Catholic hymns, Part 1 of 2: “Prayer to the Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph”
As we continue to collect all the known songs in Chinuk Wawa, we can turn our attention to a couple of Catholic pieces from Hulq’umi’num’ territory.
1900, WA: Kloshe tanse in Spokane
Post-frontier era, in town where Chinuk Wawa had never been as important as it was elsewhere…
1877, (Fort) Wrangell, AK: School in Chinook Jargon and English
[Updated in my comment below, thanks to Robert!] Those old Department of the Interior reports, published as thick books by the US government, have lots of Chinuk Wawa gold.