A much-debated Chinuk Wawa word, considering how rare it is, is the name of the Siskiyou Mountains in Oregon’s Jackson and Josephine Counties, and into northern California.

A brief illustration of how Chinook Jargon words change meaning over time…

Here’s one of the cheechakoes who did most of the work of making Chinuk Wawa a nearly universal BC language.

Rein “Snass” Stamm, have you seen this?

The book is “Voyage autour du monde” (tome premier) by Camille De Roquefeuil (Paris: Béthune et Plon, 1843).

A long hymn composed by none other than St. Thomas Aquinas gets a slightly alarming Chinook translation…

Some say we should be bringing back certain 1930s Great Depression-era good ideas, like a Green New Deal…

Checking back through my previous articles here, it seems I haven’t yet mentioned this connection between Métis French and Chinook Jargon.

I’ve seen so many half-assed etymologies published for the English words that come from Pacific NW languages, I figure I’ll see if I can hold a candle(fish) to their absurdity.