Category Archive: Chinuk Wawa

Skookum Limechen Chuck

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Ever find a Chinook surprise? I grew up in Spokane, Washington, but I’d never known that a local lake, Medical Lake, once was known as… …Skookum Limechen Chuck (‘Powerful Medicine Water’), or Skookum… Continue reading →

Kittitas Frontiersmen

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Spoiler alert: What is a tea-tea?  (Scroll to bottom.) Glauert, Earl T. and Merle H. Kunz (eds.)  1976.  Kittitas frontiersmen.  Ellensburg, WA: Ellensburg Public Library. FYI about ‘Kittitas’: the pronunciation [KITTittass] is usual… Continue reading →

A voyage round the world: With a history of the Oregon mission…

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[&c.]  By Gustavus Hines.  1850.  Buffalo: George H. Derby & Co. Page 31: Mr. D[aniel] Lee and Mr. Perkins learned the Chenook language ‘as spoken in the vicinity of Vancouver’, Washington. Page 167:… Continue reading →

Camping on the Trail: Or, some of my experiences in the Indian country

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1902.  By Edward S. Farrow.  [“Late assistant instructor of tactics at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and formerly commanding Indian Scouts in the Department of the Columbia.”] Philadelphia: American Arms Publishing… Continue reading →

From Copenhagen to Okanagan, part 3

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[See part 1 for full info on this fascinating memoir of life in the Washington Okanagan country, 1880s-1930s.  It’s still in print, apparently, from Okanogan County Historical Society.  Click the picture to visit… Continue reading →

From Copenhagen to Okanogan, part 2

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{Have you subscribed to get notified of my blog posts via email?} See my first post about this book for bibliographic info.   In this installment, notice the vivid descriptions of sign language… Continue reading →

From Copenhagen to Okanogan, part 1

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Part 1 of a multi-part blog post… “From Copenhagen to Okanogan” by U[lrich] E[nglehardt] Fries, 2nd printing published 1951 by Caxton Printers of Caldwell, Idaho. It’s one of my favorite books for quotations… Continue reading →

Komox or Comox, and “dog”?

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Sometimes people familiar with Vancouver Island, BC, wonder if the name “Comox” is a spelling of Chinook Jargon’s word for “dog”. Comox is a town on the north-central coast of the island.  This… Continue reading →

Leon Fouquet OMI 1831-1912

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Some useful information on this French missionary from Thomas Anthony Lascelles’ 1986 Simon Fraser University MA thesis, “Leon Fouquet and the Kootenay Indians, 1874-1887” (download it): Page 10 — In 1859, based in… Continue reading →

Bilingual because it’s Canadian

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Somebody offered me some bars of motel soap.  I didn’t really need anything like that, but wouldn’t you know this was right on top: Antique or what?  Is this hoary old design still… Continue reading →