Author Archive

Indian shorthand writers (1911)

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The writer of this piece about Kamloops Wawa‘s culture of written Chinook Jargon claims to have been on the scene, but she’s noticeably cribbing from the article I shared yesterday 🙂

Christianizing Indians by teaching them shorthand

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Add this to our scrapbook of historical documents on the Chinook Writing…

Another Indian winter weather forecast

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“Long and cold winter predicted by daughter of famous Indian’, warned another headline in the Native Weather Forecaster genre…

Indian Billy’s weather forecast

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Six more weeks of winter? Magical Native American trope?

Itchfoot klatawa copa h–l

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It never gets old — reminding you that pidgin-creole languages like Chinuk Wawa are folk speech. They’re full of words that stodgy old regular languages disavow paternity of…

New Year’s Chinuk Wawa letter from Tillamook, 1916

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  John Leland Henderson is a young lumberjack who taught himself how to write Jargon! A special New Year’s gift from the real McCoy…

Oregon beers: hyas klose & hyas kloser

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I respect those who observe New Year’s Eve, if at all, in a dry fashion. I also know a number of my Pacific Northwest readers will love the following quaintness:

Recollections of my boyhood

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He wasn’t a Forty-Niner, but this right here is gold!

Grand Rounde: anecdotes of Quinaby

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The rare find of an Oregon bank’s house magazine turns up Christmas-season gems from the Grand Rounde (i.e. Grand Ronde) Reservation community, 1883.

For bald heads! (My ears are burning)

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Skookum Root Hair Grower was a nationally sold product in the USA. HairRaisingStories.com tells: William C. Halleck, of Portland Oregon, registered the words “Skookum Root Hair Grower” as a Trade Mark for a… Continue reading