Brace up, boys!
Just below some jokey comments about cayuses (ponies, a Jargon word that became universally known in Pacific Northwest English), we have this…
Image credit: Youtube
(You’ll notice that this 1890s newspaper was “typeset” using the very latest tech: a typewriter.)
Brace up boys! and put on your Sunday clothes, “This is leap year”We learn that the population of Fort Steele will be increased to the extent of five Young Ladies, who will arrive shortly.O-coke hy-as kloshe, mi-ka iskum mi-ka kloochman yah-kwa.
— from the Fort Steele (BC) Prospector of March 28, 1896, page 2, column 2
Putting this Northern Chinuk Wawa into a modern spelling: Okok haiyas-tloosh; maika iskum maika tloochman yakwa.
That is, “This is great! You can find your wife here!”
Fort Steele — which was never a fort of any kind!– is a fun place in the East Kootenays to visit nowadays, being preserved as a “heritage town” near Cranbrook.
My family has visited there a number of times, partly because a grandfather of mine was born nearby.
It’s one of oldest towns in the region, and it’s virtually assured that it had a long association with Chinook Jargon, which remained in use longer in the Kootenays than in most other regions.
I’ll look forward to visiting CAMAL (the Cranbrook Archives, Museum, and Landmark Society) to do some research!
(Hat tip to reader Alex Code for sending this clipping over!)
