SW WA pioneer Sidney S. Ford must have kept notes
In the sterile conceptual ghetto of the “Young Folks” page in a midcentury USA newspaper, I found something precious.
Most of the following is boilerplate romanticizing of “the rollicking old West” as if Chinuk Wawa had been spoken in a cowboy movie setting.
But I’ll highlight something truly great to find…
If you had lived a hundred
years ago in the Pacific North-
west, you undoubtedly would
have spoken Chinook. Ever
hear of it?Chinook was a jargon,
rather than a language, and it
was a mixture of Indian
phrases learned by the tribes
so they could talk to each
other. Each tribe had its own
language and when they met
for trading purposes they
used this jargon.White settlers soon spoke
Chinook and some of their
English words crept in. Chil-
dren in pioneer families
learned it as a matter of
course. They had Indian play-
mates many times.If a family lived far from
neighbors it was important to
be on friendly terms with the
Indians. When an Indian
stopped by, the father of the
household greeted him courte-
ously by saying, “Klahowya,”
which meant “How are you?”
or “Good day.” Nine chances
out of ten the Indian wanted
food and he would say.
“Muck-a-muck,” which meant
“Eat!”Then the father would in-
troduce his wife by saying.
“My klootchman,” and when
he pointed to his children,
he’d explain, “My tenas.”Often there were no white
children close by, and pioneer
boys and girls had Indian chil-
dren as companions. They
wore Indian moccasins, too,
and their mothers made them
jackets out of deer skin, much
as the Indian mothers made
them for their families.Friendship among white
and Indian children was re-
sponsible for the family of
Judge Sidney S. Ford, who
settled on the Chehalis River,
north of the present site of
Centralia, Wash., learning the
Chinook jargon and some
native dialects. The family
clalmed later that this friend-
ship saved their lives during
the Indian war.Mary Angeline Ford was
the first white girl born north
of the Columbia River (June
8, 1847). Friendly Indians
brought the Fords dried
smoked horse clams and but-
ter clams, which were wel-
come additions to their diet.
Food had to be brought all the
way from Fort Vancouver by
canoe and oxen, so the family
lived mostly on game.Mary Angeline’s father
hired Chehalis tribesmen to
work his 600 acres and they
called him “Mister Poot,” be-
cause they could not pro-
nounce his name. He paid
them with a button for a day’s
wages or a shirt for a week’s.Fernando, Mary Angeline’s
older brother, was very blonde
and the Indians called him
“Oh Kloquask,” which meant
sun [in Upper Chehalis Salish]. The Ford children had
Indian ponies and loved rid-
ing bareback across the prai-
ries. They knew how to catch
their ponies by means of lari-
ats, which they obtained from
the Indians.The tribes on each side of
the Cascade mountains always
met at a place called Wish-
ram, where they traded with
each other. The Chinook jar-
gon was used there so that
they could understand each
other. Those from the ocean
side took clams and smoked
fish and the ones from the
eastern side of the mountains
were famous for making those
lariats.If you would like to learn a few Chinook expressions so
you can converse in the jargon-here are a few to start on.absent-halo mitlite
afraid-kwass
aged-oleman
The Almighty-Saghalie tyee
alone-kopet ikt
argue-hiyu wawa
ask-wawa
come-chahko
cook-mamook piah
dead-memaloost
depart-klatawa
dog-kamooks
dollar-dolla; chikamin
family-tillikumfarm-illahee
find-klap
fun-heehee
ghost-tamahnous; skookum
gift-cultus potlatch
girl-tenas klootchman
good-kloshe
happy-kloshetumtum
horse-kuitan
hot-hyas warm
rain-snass
receive-iskum
rich-halo klahowya
want-tikegh-Margaret P[itcairn]. Strachan
— from the Winchester (VA) Evening Star of November 12, 1962, page 10, columns 1-3
I don’t know how these highly accurate reminiscences of the well-known Sidney S. Ford pioneer family wound up in Virginia. He died in Centralia.
Journalist Margaret Pitcairn Strachan wrote lots of pieces about the Pacific Northwest.
It would be a massive stroke of luck to dig up the papers of either, or both, of these people to research. I bet you every single word of (Central Dialect) Chinook Jargon in them is a goldmine!
