Author Archive

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 3 of 3)

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Chinook Jargon turns out to be very good at describing disasters and scaring listeners.

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 2 of 3)

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It gets worse…

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 1 of 3)

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If you’re looking for shocking news & amazing Chinuk Wawa reading practice, pick up a copy of Kamloops Wawa… Today we’ll start another mini-series that’s hard to look away from. The editor of Kamloops Wawa,… Continue reading

The drunkard’s walk, from Chinuk Wawa to Upper Chehalis

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Stuff keeps turning up, somehow.

1854: The Chenook Navy

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Time was when Chinuk Wawa got your fairly far in Northern California…

Indian murderer’s trial at Whatcom, 1892

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Does this tell us something about people’s perceptions of the Jargon as sometimes slippery?

1892: Nearly all Tlingits speak Chinuk Wawa

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In debunking a rumor that the missionary Sheldon Jackson had been murdered by Alaska Natives, we learn a huge linguistic reason why it’s preposterous.

1897, (New) Metlakatla: The Indians here wake cumtux chinook wahwah

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As the “Clondyke” mania raged, a well-prepared goldrusher incidentally stopping off at Metlakatla, Alaska was surprised Chinuk Wawa was useless there.

1862: Haidas could communicate with us only via Jargon-speaking newcomers

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A man who had been part of a gold rush to the Stikine River while Alaska was still Russian territory notes how limited chances for communication in Haida Gwaii were back then.

Nicola 1904: Sad Accident (Part 4)

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It gives away no new thoughts of mine when I say the Christian warning in this concluding segment of our mini-series comes across different in Chinook Jargon than in English…