1859, BC’s Fraser River + CA: Earliest confusion of “high muckamuck” with Chinook Jargon
On the subject of a linguistic urban legend that I’ve already busted (see “Hawai’i Pidgin ‘High Makamaka’ Helps Us Bust a Jargon Myth“) —
Today we have a the earliest known occurrence of folks falsely etymologizing the phrase “high muckamuck” as being Chinuk Wawa.
Wouldn’t you know, it’s from Nevada, where they didn’t historically know a darn thing about the Jargon!
The seal of the state of Nevada, designed by Mark Twain’s friend Lance Nightingill
(image credit: Britannica Kids)
Here’s our quotation:
ABORIGINAL ART.– Our friend Getzler, at the Gem Saloon, has some fine specimens of artistic talent, of an aboriginal character, adorning his walls. They are the workmanship of the Fraser [River] Indians, and were brought to this city by [Alanson Walker] Lance Nightingill, who became a Hyas Muckamuck — “Big Man” — among them.
— from the Marysville (CA) Appeal-Democrat of November 10, 1859, page 2, column 1
Wikipedia says Nightingill, who was later the first sheriff of Humboldt County, California, went to the Fraser River gold rush in New Caledonia (that’s British Columbia) in the spring of 1858, and returned to northern CA in the autumn of 1859.
What today’s clipping shows us is that Nightingill was connected, perhaps by people not himself, to the use of Chinook Jargon on the Fraser River. And the slangy new West Coast phrase “high muckamuck” was also connected with CJ in people’s minds.
But that phrase isn’t good Jargon. It means “lots of food” in good Jargon, yes, but we haven’t yet found any evidence of good Jargon talkers calling a person this!
