Charley Kahana, Kanaka-Salish fiddler (1865-1959)
A good article at the Smithsonian Folkways website about early Pacific NW fiddlers includes some wonderful discussion of Charley Kahana.
This Hawai’ian, S’Klallam, and Lummi descendant who was born in northwest Washington learned fiddling from an old reliable source: French-Canadian / Métis veterans of the frontier-era fur trade.
“Charlie Kahana making music” (image credit: National Park Service)
Among the tunes Mr Kahana is known to have performed is “Pop Goes the Weasel”, with words sung in Chinook Jargon. Sadly we don’t have those words written down anywhere.
You can listen to him at age 91 fiddling, and talking with an accent you’ll not hear nowadays in the Chinook (Evergreen) State, at this link.
Wouldn’t it be fun to back-translate “Pop Goes the Weasel” into Chinuk Wawa?
Bonus fact:
Today I learned that the legendary Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa played an important role in our PNW music scene!
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! Free stuff! Teach Yourself northern-dialect Chinook Jargon! It’s free!
And join free Zoom sessions…
Contact me for the Zoom link.
–and–
