Here’s a contemporary photo of Coldwater, a Native village in the Nicola region of south-central British Columbia that was home to the first Indigenous “Chinuk Pipa” writer.

Indigenous readers of “Kamloops Wawa”, circa 1890’s, absolutely loved the rare treat of seeing pictures and photos.

A sight that would’ve been familiar to many readers of the “Chinook Paper” was this frontier scene…

I reckon this one counts as a picture, in a way…

More from Spahomin, also known as Douglas Lake, BC, in northern Syilx (“Okanagan”) country.

An early view of Spahomin!

Click the following link to browse all installments in this series!

Chinuk Wawa is a language for talking about your real life — so how about learning to say ‘I had some hard work to do, so I’m running late’?

Pictures were a valued commodity in the early days of Chinuk Wawa literacy, in southern British Columbia.

From a coastal town where Chinuk Pipa writing was popular…