1911: Celebrate for Chief Seattle
The beginning of Chief Seattle Days in Suquamish naturally involved a Chinuk Wawa speech…
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Shoalwater Bay stories, Part 2
Today: Acelan’s Story. It’s quite possibly a true newly discovered wrinkle in an old story.
Spokane Romance in New Novel: A pair of discoveries!
A Spokane newspaper article indirectly leads us to two new discoveries about Chinuk Wawa!
Took big city by storm
Just a morsel of Chinook Jargon here…
Indian rites over body of old chief
A lot of confusion in a small paragraph about the Puyallup tribe…
Shoalwater Bay stories, Part 1
Here is a traditional, and I expect true, story about the origin of southwest Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula and Shoalwater Bay.
1855 Indian war: The Puget Sound Rangers know when they’re being cussed at in Jargon
I ask you: if you were a freaked-out Settler under armed Indigenous attack, how well would you understand what your enemies were hollering at you in Chinuk Wawa?
1893: A quick study at Spences Bridge…a kid from Ontario?
Here’s one of the many nice examples of people quickly learning to read Chinuk Pipa back in the day…I challenge you to match their success!
Muck-a-muck potlatch menu
Subtext: the governor of post-frontier Washington State may have stood out for not not knowing Chinuk Wawa very well.
Robert K. Beecham, the Canadian “Chinook poet” of Everett
Robert K. Beecham (1838-1920), born in New Brunswick, served in a Wisconsin division in the US Civil War, moved to Everett, Washington in 1894 — which is a telling detail.