Category Archive: Uncategorized

“Tillicum” and Chinuk Wawa, on PRI’s “The World”

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So this linguist guy showed up on the radio all over the place again, yesterday.  It was on Public Radio International. The show called “PRI’s The World” is running a series, “Name Tag”, about… Continue reading →

From mulishness to jackassery

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Thus my website improves 🙂 I’ve written about how Chinuk Wawa words for “mule” include some of the rare Spanish loans into this language, mulo and mula.  The kinda hard to use, but deeply valuable,… Continue reading →

Life among the Crees, in Chinuk Wawa

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(Tune in next time for Life among the Inuit, in Chinuk Wawa.  I promise!) Sometimes you can’t find the sun, but the fish won’t leave you alone: Life among the Crees, as told… Continue reading →

Stoves! Another Chinook ad

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From the Education & Entertainment Department: A Chinuk Wawa ad for stoves & equipment. It advises readers to write to McLennan & McFeely in Vancouver, as usual specifying how to write their address not in shorthand.… Continue reading →

“Potlatch” is not Chinook for “potlatch”

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This post is a polemical claim, a challenge to my readers. The realization has been building in my mind for years…Iʹm none too sure Iʹve ever seen potlatch used in Chinook Jargon to mean… Continue reading →

Assimilation’s Agent: My Life As a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System

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łush ukuk buk: Someone has shown the fine judgment to publish the memoir of Edwin L. Chalcraft as a book, under a title he might never have come up with: “Assimilation’s Agent: My Life As… Continue reading →

5 shorthand symbols no one ever used

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“Chinuk pipa” shorthand officially had its own set of numerals, but they were confusing (see here how they were identical to alphabet letters!) Aboriginal writers never used them, to our knowledge. Here are… Continue reading →

Chinook for Washington Pioneer.

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With, as usual, my suggested translation put between the lines, let’s read from page 1 of the June 2, 1899 issue (volume 13, number 24) of the Mason County [WA] Journal: Chinook for Washington Pioneer.… Continue reading →

Something evidently occurred in the Department of Geology, Columbia University

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Chinuk Wawa, again as an ipsut-wawa (in-group or secret language): From the Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, No. 78 (June 1913), ‘Personal’ column, page v: I’ll throw in my understanding of… Continue reading →

Hy-iu-hee-hee & superb local histories

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(Editing 10/08/2026 to add one at the bottom.) The Harbor History Museum (Gig Harbor, WA) runs a fantastic blog where they chased down in lively detail the history of the Hy-iu-hee-hee (Lots of… Continue reading →