Pioneer chants weird Indian song in Chinook Jargon
In news of a local version of one of the then-popular statewide annual reunions of “old Oregon” pioneers, we have this teaser: George W. Dunn is the retiring president. Rev. P.R.… Continue reading
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The Mallery Drug Co. ad, 1902
[Edited with more info 11/20/2016 — see end of article.] I’ve been running a thread of Chinook Jargon advertisements, which will be continuing for quite a while due to the plenitude of spots… Continue reading
The local editors of Portland are abusing one another in choice Chinook
The local editors of Portland, Oregon, are abusing one another in choice Chinook, and such words as “siwash tillicums,” “mesacha cultus wawa” are freely bandied as if they had a wonderful… Continue reading
Not Learned in Chinook
This is an old-school telling of the first Chinook Jargon joke I ever learned, back in 1998: the siktum dolla bit. (Hat tip to Tim Montler for that.) (My comments after the proto-Trumpian ethnic-stereotyping fest… Continue reading
J.R. Hull ad, 1902
A nice, direct yet terse, advertising appeal in Chinook Jargon: Msaika komtaks naika: naika Shon Hol: You folks know me: I’m John Hull, naika makuk msaika musmus, pi naika I… Continue reading
1847: Ship your ictas to W.H. Davis, Esq. of this place
I was saying the other day how ictas (“things, belongings, paraphernalia”) was among the first Chinook Jargon words to enter regional English. In terms of there even existing a community of speakers that could… Continue reading
Wedding Cakes.
One of the earliest Chinook Jargon words to enter regional English, I’m finding, was ictas, used to mean “things; belongings; associated trimmings”. From the start of publishing in Oregon, I find it sprinkled into casual… Continue reading
Rodney Glisan & Army buddies mystify New Yorkers
Portlanders will recognize the name of Glisan. Military surgeon Rodney Glisan (1827-1890) published his “Journal of Army Life” as a book in 1874, with a good deal of discussion of his six years in the Oregon Indian… Continue reading
The Cliff Safety ad, 1902
Lively colloquial use of a language is gold. Too many now-endangered or extinct languages lack clues to how they were once spontaneously spoken. I want to suggest that, of all the unexpected genres,… Continue reading
“Foreign Indians” from China
“The Thlackamas Indians” is the headline on a pretty substantial unsigned article about the local Clackamas Chinookan tribe in the Oregon City (OR) Enterprise of Thursday, June 24, 1886 (page 1, all of columns 2… Continue reading