Author Archive

The land prayer

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This struck my eye:

Saying ‘birds’ to mean general ‘animals’ may be traditional Indigenous stuff

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Which is which? (Image credit: The Hall of Einar) Kiksht Upper Chinookan is a language where you can call horses ‘birds’.

Ad: “Kanaway Tillicum Tikke Kloosh Muk-a-muk”

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Here’s another advertisement in (Northern) Chinook Jargon.

“If it weren’t for…”: the clearest counterfactuals

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Humans have the ability to imagine alternatives to how things actually occur.

‘Labrador tea’ in western Oregon Chinuk Wawa

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Previously, in this space: ‘Labrador tea‘ {yes, that’s a link} has come up only in (other) Métis languages.

Proof of pidginization of a Mexican Spanish word in BC Chinook Jargon

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The word mula in Spanish means a female mule; a male one is mulo. 

Spotted in the wild: Ulrich E Fries at Okanogan Museum

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Lots and lots of Chinook Jargon is connected with this item that belonged to U.E. Fries! Go see it all at the truly great Okanogan County Historical Museum in Okanogan, WA. 𛰅𛱁‌𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆‌𛰅𛱁… Continue reading →

Hey, Southeast (Alaska) folks: do you know the Boy Scouts song?

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An older person in Ketchikan, Alaska sang what they called “the Boy Scouts song” over the phone to me in 2003, and I had no way to audio-record it.

Did I find a love note? BC Indigenous people writing stuff in their copy of Kamloops Wawa

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Did I find one of those kaltash tz’um love notes that the one chief was determined to burn? 

Who is going to record these precious old Chinook Jargon tunes? (Part 1 of 3)

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I’m not getting any younger, these songs won’t record themselves, and clichés won’t get the job done either!