1885: The Indian Sign Language (William Philo Clark and Father Ravalli) — and “Chenook”
William Philo Clark (1845-1884) was a US Army officer who wrote a neat book, “The Indian Sign Language”, about that pidgin language of the Northern Plains…
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1906: The tomanawis of Chief Cha-we-tsot
I had heard of Albert B Reagan (1871-1936) before, in my reading on Pacific Northwest cultures, but I hadn’t realized he was a relatively primitive anthropologist.
1894, southern BC: Klonas lazy, klonas halo!
Local readers understood the Chinook tag line on this letter to the editor in the early post-frontier era…
“ashnu”/”shenu” is definitely not a normal word!
I had thought the Northern-Dialect Chinook Jargon word ashnu ‘to kneel’ was an anomaly…
Cortes Island Museum website: Jargon story and photo
For educational purposes only, I’d like to share an exciting find of a Chinook Jargon story from Cortes Island, British Columbia.
So many Métis words in interior PNW languages (Part 12: Umatilla Sahaptin — breads and rooms)
Umatilla Sahaptin is a language of tribal people who met non-Native newcomers fairly early…
Where was Camp 16, BC?
A couple of the Chinuk Pipa letters that we’ve found, written by Indigenous people of British Columbia, are datelined “Camp 16” in 1893. Ever heard of the place?
Notes from Yahooskin Northern Paiute (Klamath Tribes)
One Pacific Northwest language that I’ve had a harder time finding reference materials on is Northern Paiute.
1895: Real-world Northern Chinook Jargon (An apology for “turning Métis”?)
Nah, we’re talking about dysgraphia!
I visited the graves of PNW linguistic pioneers in Spokane
At Mount Saint Michaels in Hillyard (Spokane), Washington, this week: