1911, WA: Sagamores club motto is a mystery to the young
Kids these days!
Image credit: Cascade PBS
Check out this UW-related event…
The Sagamores plan an unique party
at Faurot’s hall Friday next. The in-
vitations announce the “frst annual
potlatch of the Sagamore Tribe,” and
are inscribed with the motto of the
club in Chinook jargon, “Quanisum
Hee Hee,” the meaning ef which is
not apparent to the majority of invited
guests and is causing much specula-
tion. On account of the university
freshman benefit at the Seattle theater,
with which the club does not wish to
conflict, seat stubs will be honored for
programmes and refreshments after 11
o’clock.
— from the Society page in the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of January 29, 1911, page 39, column 3
The Sagamores must have been a young people’s club, apparently a college fraternity. (They became a chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha.) Their parents’ generation and elders would know that Quanisum Hee hee = kwanisum heehee = kwansəm hihi, “always fun”!
