Category Archive: Uncategorized

1877, Idaho: John Emery is the victim of a pretty rough joke

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You have to go back real early in Idaho history to find good Chinuk Wawa spoken there…

1911: “A pioneer judge’s memory” has poignant Jargon coda

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A Pioneer Judge’s Memory includes a poignant coda in okay CJ:

1861: Gold Hunting in the Cascade Mountains

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One of the earliest, and least known, publications in Washington Territory…

1865: Prehistoric Man Ain’t Here No More (sez Paul Kane)

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What’s taken his place is a new Chinuk Wawa-speaking society, according to this writer.

1914: City Puts on Its Gay Duds for Potlatch

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It’s hard to find many Pride-related topics in old newspapers, so I’ve settled on this one.

1909: a “Spokeshoot liar” & very fluent Jargon

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From a current ghost town that was then one of British Columbia’s biggest settlements (where Franz Boas did a lot of his work with Tsimshians & Haidas)…

1938: Rankin, “Frontier Days” of a cowboy

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M. Wilson Rankin (1857-1938), originally from Pennsylvania, was a pioneer cowboy of Colorado & Wyoming…

1888: Indian stabbing affray — Englished Chinook

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Here’s a late-frontier find that’s out of the ordinary: dialogue cited as occurring in Chinuk Wawa, but delivered only in translation.

1879: The Kittitas “Wau-Wau”

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Before Kamloops, another Northwest town had a newspaper called the “Talk” in Chinook Jargon.

1912: Crazy co-inky-dink Indian schwa ad!

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By a bizarre coincidence, this racist advertisement that (I’m guessing) puts Chinuk Wawa into the mouth of a wooden Indian also has the earliest “schwa” symbol I’ve ever seen!