Author Archive

Arabella Clemens Fulton

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Arabella Clemens Fulton (1844-1934) took the Oregon Trail relatively late, in 1864…

One Grand Ronde word, and implications for Jargon adverbs

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A use of a neat Jargon word that hasn’t been pointed out before…

“Bringing Home the Wishing Rock”

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Is there a Chinuk Wawa tie-in to this cool public sculpture in Spokane?

1890: Notes & Queries … and Salish?

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I’m going to present an old article here, and then talk about one word in it…

1911: Cultus Chikamen doggerel

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A short post-frontier poem called “Cultus Chikamen” [‘Worthless Money’] by W.R. Gordon expresses an old-timer’s nostalgia for seemingly more prosperous days.

1906: California Hobucket mamook iskum dhuoyuatz

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A photo of an apparent Chinuk Wawa speaker, tucked away in a multi-volume work on West Coast ornithology, is rare evidence of an uncommon, useful Jargon phrase…

Is Chinuk Wawa’s “dago” Spanish, or Salish?

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There’s a fairly rare word of Chinook Jargon that’s pretty much known only from James G. Swan’s mid-1850s stay on Shoalwater Bay, Washington.

1897-98: Raoul Renault in Le Courrier du Livre

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A Québécois literary magazine put a good chunk of page space into a look at the “Chinook paper”…

1895, Kootenays: the most cultus bunch around

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The Kootenays of southeast British Columbia (and Washington and Idaho) were one of the last strongholds of Chinuk Wawa.

H. Guillod, Chinook, and Alberni Indians

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We learn some background on one of the original documentors of British Columbia Chinook Jargon, from an old British Protestant magazine.