Category Archive: Uncategorized

Tilikums Ikt Potlatch

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Strangest Places Dept.: I quote verbatim from San Francisco insurance-trade publication The Adjuster (volume 40, number 1; January 1910, page 14), adding [in brackets] my English translations. My comments follow afterward.     Tilikums Ikt… Continue reading

The Iron Klooch

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[Not for the most sensitive ears.] If I had accesss to the Murray-Latta fonds at UBC Archives, the blueprints for the Iron Klooch would make a spectacular illustration here. That’s your basic Kellington… Continue reading

1890’s ladies’ diet advice in Chinuk Wawa

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WW19CCTYTD? (What would a 19th-century celibate tell you to do?) “Mgr. Kneipp‘s Hygienic Instructions” ALTA KOPA KLUCHMIN, PUS WIK SAIA Now, for the lady, when it’s almost time  IAKA TLAP IAKA TANAS. for… Continue reading

The medicine man argues back…in church!

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{Edited to specify: it’s not the medicine man who’s doing the arguing here, it’s someone who supports him.} When you grasp how, in Kamloops Wawa, liplit “the priest” mentioned in the third person is the same… Continue reading

Chinuk Wawa shorthand writers of Spahomin

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I can guarantee you that this photo shows a large number of Chinuk Wawa shorthand writers.  (Kamloops Wawa #125 (1895), page 19.)  The local chief, John Chilliheetza, was himself a skilled practitioner, and he… Continue reading

What do you do when your church has no bell?

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What do you do when your church has no bell? This was the situation in a couple of Secwepemc communities of British Columbia that was reported in Kamloops Wawa #126 (March 1895), page… Continue reading

Today’s Native ad…which do you want first, chicken or eggs?

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Another Secwepemc man from Sugarcane Reserve (Williams Lake, BC) placed an illustrated want ad in Kamloops Wawa #126 (March 1895), page 37. FYI: I’m halfway guessing at this guy’s surname as being “Kelly”; sometimes there… Continue reading

Native ad from Mawich Man

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I’ve got more of these great Native ads for you. Today, Mawich Man of Sugarcane Reserve speaks. Y’know, not this Mowich Man (Billy Everett of Crescent, Clallam County, WA)… Not Ezra Meeker’s buddy Mowich… Continue reading

Shmamaiam, a newfound word of Chinuk Wawa (and Secwepemctsín)

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Shmamaiam means “catechism”. There’s already more than one word for that in Chinook Jargon. Around Kamloops they typically used either katikism from local English or likatishism from the Oblate missionary priests’ French. Now, you wouldn’t know it,… Continue reading

Come ‘n’ git it!

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Two more of the wonderful want ads placed by Indigenous people in the Sugarcane Bell mini-newspaper (KW #126, March 1895, page 37): Ad the first: [written on a picture of a rabbit:] Skukum makmak. Excellent food.… Continue reading