1877, WA: A klootchman’s grave
I’m making note of this frontier-era news article not only for its casual use of Chinook Jargon (which every reader understood), but also to show that “fish Indians” was very common terminology.
When did “fish Indians” come into vogue? I’ve found it in Robert Stuart’s Fort Astoria journals from 1812, explicitly contrasted with “Shoshones”.
Today’s item comes from Cowlitz territory, where Freeport, WA was among the earliest settlements. (At one time it had been the county seat.)
There is a curiosity in the shape
of a tombstone over the grave of a
Klootchman at Freeport, intended for
a monument, and is made to represent
a whale. It is cut from a cedar log.
The whale amongst our fish Indians is
typical of greatness, and the Klootch-
man over whose grave this is placed
must have been considercd hyas closh.
— from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of October 18, 1877, page 3, column 1
Do you understand the 3 Chinuk Wawa words used here?
𛰅𛱁𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆𛰅𛱁 𛰃𛱄𛰙𛰃𛱄𛰙? qʰáta mayka tə́mtəm?
kata maika tumtum? Qu’en penses-tu?
What do you think?
And can you say it in Chinuk Wawa?
Hey! Teach Yourself northern-dialect Chinook Jargon!
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Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised if “fish Indians” began with or just after Lewis and Clark, or thereabouts, when there were more news stories for the reading public that contrasted the “horse Indians” of the interior Plateau with those relying solely on canoes on the coast. At least the Northwest regional press started to contrast the two groups this way beginning in the second half of the 19th century. And, sadly, the press often intoned something pejorative about the fish people, and something noble and intelligent about the horse people. I think it even worked its way into early ethnological descriptions, though I can’t remember who…
I think your impression of early (pre-scientific) ethnologists imparting some preconceived virtue to “horse Indians” and putting down “fish Indians” is 100% accurate. They were judging the Indigenous people by European social stratifications.
Dave Robertson