Author Archive

1865, OR: Treaty-making between Northern Paiutes and USA

by

A little more evidence of Northern Paiute speakers in Chinook Jargon-speaking environments.

1858, BC: “The Indians Friendly!” — Arrival of the “Sea Bird”

by

“The Indians Friendly” was one of several stacked-up breathless headlines from the start of a gold fever.

1878, WA: Hoko Eyetems

by

Just a few words, but fun!

“Subject pronoun, subject pronoun” is probably really old in Jargon

by

With that settled, the next question may be whether this comes from casual French, as I suspect, meaning it dates to Fort Astoria/Fort Vancouver days, but not earlier.

1899, OR: Pioneer Women Reunite (hey readers, can you help?)

by

The Portland (OR) Sunday Oregonian of August 20, 1899, page 19, columns 1-2 carries a very interesting, but flawed, source of information about Chinook Jargon.

1874, BC: Ka hokoke stemah klatawa?

by

“Navigating by a Dead-Reckoning” is the headline on a territorial-era newspaper piece about the steamship North Pacific leaving Victoria, BC on its way to Puget Sound…

1918, AK: Humor about Chinuk Wawa

by

Enough readers of this post-frontier era Alaskan newspaper understood Chinook to make it worth publishing the following joke.

1869, WA: “Paddle Your Own Canoe” doggerel

by

I’m convinced Washington Territory was the world’s capital of Chinook Jargon-related doggerel poetry!

Another Oregon coast folk etymology? Siuslaw and ‘far away’

by

Honestly, you can add this one to the pile of things I thought I’d already written up.

1858: More “broken China” with “whooping Chenook”

by

Here’s another neat demonstration of how two pidgins, Chinuk Wawa and Chinese Pidgin English, coexisted in the far west of North America.